Alignment of microvascular units along skeletal muscle fibers of hamster retractor

Emerson, Geoffrey G., and Steven S. Segal. Alignment ofmicrovascular units along skeletal muscle fibers of hamster retractor.J. Appl. Physiol. 82(1): 42-48, 1997.When muscle fibers contract, blood flow requirements increasealong their entire length. However, the organization of capillaryperfusion along muscle fibers is unclear. The microvascular unit (MVU)is defined as a terminal arteriole and the group of capillaries itsupplies. We investigated whether neighboring MVUs along the fiber axis perfused the same group of muscle fibers by using the parallel-fibered retractor muscle. Hamsters were anesthetized and perfused with Microfilto visualize MVUs relative to muscle fibers. Fields of study, whichencompassed five to seven neighboring MVUs along a muscle fiber, werechosen from the interior of muscles and along muscle edges. On average,MVUs were 1 mm in length, 0.50 mm in width, and 0.1 mm deep; segmentsof ~30 fibers were contained in this tissue volume of 0.05 mm³ (20 MVUs/mg muscle). The totaldistance across muscle fibers encompassed by a pair of MVUs isdesignated "union" (U); the fraction of this distance common toboth MVUs is designated "intersection" (I). The ratio of I to Ufor the widths of neighboring MVUs provides an index of MVU alignmentalong muscle fibers (e.g., I/U = 1.0 indicates complete alignment,where the fibers perfused by one MVU are the same as those perfused bythe neighboring MVU). We found that I/U along muscle edges (0.71 ± 0.02) was greater (P < 0.05) thanthe ratio measured within muscles (0.66 ± 0.02). A model predicteda maximum I/U of 0.58 with random MVU alignment. Thus measured valueswere closer to random than to complete alignment. These findingsindicate that an increase in blood flow along muscle fibers requiresthe perfusion of many MVUs and imply that vasodilation is coordinatedamong the parent arterioles from which corresponding MVUsarise.