BACKGROUND Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) affects millions of Americans and leads to critical limb ischemia (CLI) in the most severe cases. Investigators have demonstrated the utility of hydrogen sulfide for restoring perfusion in rodent models of chronic ischemia. We sought to determine the minimum effective dose (MED) of sulfide necessary to restore perfusion in the rat hindlimb, to assess...

The present study was undertaken to determine the effect of simulated microgravity on the testis of the rats and to evaluate the possibility of spermatogenesis failure in space environment. Fifty-four adult male albino rats were used in this study. They were divided equally into intact control, stress control and experimental groups. The rats of the intact control group (Group Ia) were kept wit...

Lack of thyroid hormones may affect the composition and structure of the interstitium. Hypothyrosis was induced in rats by thyroidectomy 4-12 wk before the experiments. In hypothyroid rats (n = 16), interstitial fluid pressure measured with micropipettes in hindlimb skin and muscle averaged +0.1 +/- 0.2 and +0.5 +/- 0.2 mmHg, respectively, with corresponding pressures in control rats (n = 16) o...

Metabolite accumulation due to ischemia of active skeletal muscle stimulates group III/IV chemosensitive afferents eliciting reflex increases in arterial blood pressure and sympathetic activity, termed the muscle metaboreflex. We and others have previously demonstrated sympathetically mediated vasoconstriction of coronary, renal, and forelimb vasculatures with muscle metaboreflex activation (MM...

We investigated in rats the effect of 4 wk of hypodynamia on the respiration of mitochondria isolated from four distinct muscles [soleus, extensor digitorum longus, tibial anterior, and gastrocnemius (Gas)] and from subsarcolemmal (SS) and intermyofibrillar (IMF) regions of mixed hindlimb muscles that mainly contained the four cited muscles. With pyruvate plus malate as respiratory substrate, 4...

A brain-machine interface (BMI) is a neuroprosthetic device that can restore motor function of individuals with paralysis. Although the feasibility of BMI control of upper-limb neuroprostheses has been demonstrated, a BMI for the restoration of lower-limb motor functions has not yet been developed. The objective of this study was to determine if gait-related information can be captured from neu...

Lack of a standardized experimental counterpart of peripheral lymphedema (LE) in a small animal has hampered research into treatment of this debilitating condition. We recently refined a rodent model consisting of radical unilateral lymphatic/nodal groin excision in conjunction with a circumferential integumental gap, followed by regional irradiation of the groin to reproduce stable unilateral ...

The objective was to understand how the stance-phase kinematics of the hindlimb of trotting horses change with speed under 3 conditions (level, loaded and incline), to compare our results with the predictions of the spring-mass model and to help focus our future studies of muscle function. Video recordings were made of 5 Arabian horses trotting on a treadmill. Five consecutive strides were digi...

Vertebrates have two pairs of morphologically distinct appendages, the forelimbs and the hindlimbs. Although the mechanisms necessary for limb outgrowth and polarity are becoming fairly well-understood little is known about how limb-type identity is regulated. The homeobox containing transcription factor Pitx1 expressed in hindlimb bud mesenchyme and has been shown to be involved in limb-type d...