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Estimating transit time for capillary blood in selected muscles of exercising animals

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Abstract

The mean minimal capillary transit time was estimated in muscles of various animals using a combination of physiological and morphometric methods. Radioactive microspheres were injected intravascularly in various animals running on a treadmill at maximum oxygen consumption rate (VO2,max) to label blood flow to individual muscles. The muscles were then removed and preserved by standard methods for electron microscopy. The volume density of mitochondria was measured to assess muscle oxidative capacity. Capillary densities in muscle cross-sections, capillary diameters and tortuosities were incorporated into an estimate of capillary volume per unit muscle mass. Mean capillary transit time (t c) in the exercising muscles was estimated by dividing mass-specific capillary volume by mass-specific blood flow. Estimates of t c ranged from values near 1 s in horse heart and thigh muscles to 0.2 s in duck gastrocnemius. The relationship between muscle blood flow and t c was hyperbolic. The experimental data indicate a limiting value of 0.2 s for transit times at very high blood flows. There was no correlation between t c and body-mass-specific VO2,max.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, University of Bern, Bühlstrasse 26, CH-3000, Bern 9, Switzerland

    S. R. Kayar & H. Hoppeler

  2. Department of Exercise Science, University of Georgia, 30602, Athens, GA, USA

    R. B. Armstrong

  3. Departments of Veterinary Biomedical Science and Medical Physiology, University of Missouri, 65211, Columbia, MO, USA

    M. H. Laughlin

  4. Department of Biology, Northern Arizona University, 86011, Flagstaff, AZ, USA

    S. L. Lindstedt

  5. Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 02138, Cambridge, MA, USA

    J. H. Jones, K. R. Conley & C. R. Taylor

Authors
  1. S. R. Kayar
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  2. H. Hoppeler
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  3. R. B. Armstrong
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  4. M. H. Laughlin
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  5. S. L. Lindstedt
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  6. J. H. Jones
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  7. K. R. Conley
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  8. C. R. Taylor
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Kayar, S.R., Hoppeler, H., Armstrong, R.B. et al. Estimating transit time for capillary blood in selected muscles of exercising animals. Pflügers Arch. 421, 578–584 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00375054

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00375054

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