Countdown before voluntary exercise induces muscle vasodilation with baroreflex-mediated decrease in muscle sympathetic nerve activity in humans

Prospective cardiovascular adjustment occurs before starting voluntary exercise, increasing heart rate and arterial pressure followed by muscle vasodilation; however, the precise mechanisms and significance for this vasodilation remain unknown. We found that during the countdown before starting exercise cerebral blood flow velocity increased, followed by increases in heart rate and arterial pressure, which suppressed MSNA through baroreflex, resulting in thigh muscle vasodilation to increase oxygen consumption rate, which might make it easier to start exercise.

Nitric oxide regulation of microvascular oxygen exchange during hypoxia and hyperoxia

The objective of this work was to test the hypothesis that the limitation of nitric oxide (NO) availability accentuates microvascular reactivity to oxygen. The awake hamster chamber window model was rendered hypoxic and hyperoxic by ventilation with 10 and 100% oxygen. Systemic and microvascular parameters were determined in the two conditions and compared with normoxia in a group receiving the NO scavenger nitronyl nitroxide and a control group receiving only the vehicle (saline). Mean arterial blood pressure did not change with different gas mixtures during infusion of the vehicle, but it increased significantly in the NO-depleted group. NO scavenging increased the reactivity of microvessels to the changed oxygen supply, causing the arteriolar wall to significantly increase oxygen consumption. Tissue Po2 was correspondingly significantly reduced during NO scavenger infusion. The present findings support the hypothesis that microvascular oxygen consumption is proportional to oxygen-induced vasoconstriction. The effect of oxygen on vascular tone is modulated by NO. As a consequence, NO acts as a regulator of the vessel wall oxygen consumption. The vessel wall consumes oxygen in proportion to the local Po2, and an impairment of NO availability renders the circulation more sensitive to changes in the oxygen supply.

Inhibition of shivering in hypothermic seals during diving

The mammalian response to hypothermia is increased metabolic heat production, usually by way of muscular activity, such as shivering. Seals, however, have been reported to respond to diving with hypothermia, which in other mammals under other circumstances would have elicited vigorous shivering. In the diving situation, shivering could be counterproductive, because it obviously would increase oxygen consumption and therefore reduce diving capacity. We have measured the electromyographic (EMG) activity of three different muscles and the rectal and brain temperature of hooded seals ( Cystophora cristata) while they were exposed to low ambient temperatures in a climatic chamber and while they performed a series of experimental dives in cold water. In air, the seals had a normal mammalian shivering response to cold. Muscles were recruited in a sequential manner until body temperature stopped dropping. Shivering was initiated when rectal temperature fell below 35.3 ± 0.6°C ( n = 6). In the hypothermic diving seal, however, the EMG activity in all of the muscles that had been shivering vigorously before submergence was much reduced, or stopped altogether, whereas it increased again upon emergence but was again reduced if diving was repeated. We conclude that shivering is inhibited during diving to allow a decrease in body temperature whereby oxygen consumption is decreased and diving capacity is extended.

Direct observation of radial intracellular P O 2 gradients in a single cardiomyocyte of the rat

The purpose of the present study was to directly visualize radial gradients of intracellular [Formula: see text] in a single individual cardiomyocyte isolated from the rat ventricle. Microspectrophotometry with the use of cytosolic myoglobin as an oxygen probe was conducted at 410 nm. When the quiescent cell was incubated with 1 μM carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone to increase oxygen consumption approximately eightfold, gradual decreases in myoglobin oxygen saturation (SMb) were demonstrated toward the core of the cell, whereas these decreases disappeared when the cell was treated with 2 mM NaCN. These results highlighted the importance of diffusional oxygen transport in determining intracellular oxygenation in cardiac cells. From the measured SMb, we assessed the profile of radial changes in intracellular [Formula: see text]at the mean SMb comparable to that in vivo (∼0.5). Quite steep [Formula: see text]gradients were demonstrated in the vicinity of the sarcolemma that were rapidly attenuated toward the cell core. These radial profiles of intracellular [Formula: see text] demonstrate the significance of myoglobin-facilitated diffusion of oxygen. Furthermore, the shallow gradients of [Formula: see text] near the center of the cell might arise from partial depression of oxygen consumption near the cell core.

The effects of activity, temperature and mass on the respiratory metabolism of the squid, Illex illecebrosus

Oxygen consumption was measured in squid (Illex illecebrosus) ranging from 42·7 to 443·0 g. Ambient temperature increased from 8·3 °C to 18·2 °C during the experimental period. Resting rates were calculated by correcting for the percentage of time not spent in the resting posture. A 100 g squid resting at 13 °C has a predicted oxygen consumption of 31·3 ml/h, while a continuously swimming squid has an oxygen consumption of 125·0 ml/h. Oxygen consumption is almost directly proportional to body size. A 10° increase in environmental temperature would increase oxygen consumption for a squid of given mass by 6·7 times.