Intrinsic Alteration of the Reactive Properties of Arteries during Hypothermia

摘要

This study compared the reactive and contractile properties of helical strips of femoral arteries taken from normothermic rabbits and rabbits that were anesthetized with pentobarbitol and cooled to 25 C at a rate of 7 C per hour. The purpose of this comparison was to see if intrinsic factors would alter the sensitivity and/or contractility of this vascular muscle to norepinephrine during whole body hypothermia. We found that, after two hours of in vivo hypothermia, the hypothermic derived tissue was from 10 to 100 times more sensitive to norepinephrine than the normothermic derived tissue. This augmented sensitivity continued while the tissue was in vitro for at least twelve hours. The dose-response curves of the hypothermic derived arteries were shifted to the left of the normothermic arteries resulting in a greater contractility at lower levels of agonist. Moreover, the normothermic tissue contracted slower than the hypothermic. The maximal tension developed by the strips was equivalent. This study has identified prolonged alterations of receptor sensitivities and contractility properties attributable to in vivo influences that can, in part, explain the disruptions of blood pressure during and following whold body hypothermia.