In mammals, the epaxial muscles are believed to stabilize the trunk during walking and trotting because the timing of their activity is not appropriate to produce bending of the trunk. To test whether this is indeed the case, we recorded the activity of the m. multifidus lumborum and the m. longissimus thoracis et lumborum at three different sites along the trunk (T13, L3, L6) as we manipulated...

BACKGROUND Vascular function is impaired in patients with diabetes, however diabetic vascular dysfunction is ameliorated by exercise training. We aimed to clarify which hindlimb arterial segments are affected by treadmill running in the hindlimbs of streptozocin-induced type 1 diabetic mice in vivo. METHODS Mice were divided into 3 groups; healthy control, diabetic control, and diabetic-runni...

In bats, the wing membrane is anchored not only to the body and forelimb, but also to the hindlimb. This attachment configuration gives bats the potential to modulate wing shape by moving the hindlimb, such as by joint movement at the hip or knee. Such movements could modulate lift, drag, or the pitching moment. In this study we address: 1) how the ankle translates through space during the wing...

This study investigates the efficacy of local and intravenous mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) administration to augment neuroregeneration in both a sciatic nerve cut-and-repair and rat hindlimb transplant model. Bone marrow-derived MSCs were harvested and purified from Brown-Norway (BN) rats. Sciatic nerve transections and repairs were performed in three groups of Lewis (LEW) rats: negative control...

Jackson, Dwayne N., Earl G. Noble, and J. Kevin Shoemaker. Y1and 1-receptor control of basal hindlimb vascular tone. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 287: R228–R233, 2004. First published March 25, 2004; 10.1152/ajpregu.00723.2003.—The role of endogenous Y1-receptor activation on skeletal muscle vasculature under baseline conditions is currently debated and no in vivo studies have been pe...

Hindlimb unloading of rats results in a diminished ability of skeletal muscle arterioles to constrict in vitro and elevate vascular resistance in vivo. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether alterations in the mechanical environment (i.e., reduced fluid pressure and blood flow) of the vasculature in hindlimb skeletal muscles from 2-wk hindlimb-unloaded (HU) rats induces a str...

Hemodynamic responses to histamine were investigated in the anesthetized rabbit. Intravenous injections of histamine induced dose-dependent decreases in systemic arterial pressure that were blocked by the H1-receptor antagonist pyrilamine but not the H2 antagonist cimetidine. Injections of histamine and the H1 agonist 6-[2-(4-imidazolyl)ethylamine]- N-(4-trifuormethylphenyl)-heptanecardoxamide ...

The most accepted animal model for simulation of the physiological and morphological consequences of microgravity on the cardiovascular system is one of head-down hindlimb unloading. Experimental conditions surrounding this model include not only head-down tilting of rats, but also social and restraint stresses that have their own influences on cardiovascular system function. Here, we studied l...

Mice are one of the most commonly used laboratory animals, with an extensive array of disease models in existence, including for many neuromuscular diseases. The hindlimb is of particular interest due to several close muscle analogues/homologues to humans and other species. A detailed anatomical study describing the adult morphology is lacking, however. This study describes in detail the muscul...

The extrinsic appendicular muscles of mammals have been suggested to impose parasagittal torques on the trunk that require recruitment of the oblique hypaxial muscles for stabilization. To determine if the recruitment of the protractors and retractors of the hindlimb are compatible with this hypothesis, we monitored changes in the recruitment of eleven muscles that span the hip joint to control...