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. 2009 Sep;4(3):302-7.
doi: 10.1007/s11552-009-9169-8. Epub 2009 Feb 5.

Modification of blood vessel diameter following perivascular application of botulinum toxin-A

Peter B Arnold  1 , Chris A Campbell, George Rodeheaver, Wyndell Merritt, Raymond F Morgan, David B Drake
Affiliations

Modification of blood vessel diameter following perivascular application of botulinum toxin-A

Peter B Arnold et al. Hand (N Y). 2009 Sep.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that perivascularly applied botulinum toxin-A (BTX) increases the diameter of treated blood vessels in a rat femoral vessel exposure model. Six adult Sprague-Dawley rats were used and bilateral femoral artery and vein exposures were performed. Five units of BTX were applied to the experimental side and an equal volume of sterile saline was applied to the control side. Digital images of the vessels were obtained at the following time points: pretreatment, immediately posttreatment, and postoperative days (POD) 1, 14, and 28. Vessel diameters were equivalent at baseline and immediately following application of BTX and saline. The BTX artery was significantly larger than the control artery on POD 1 and 14. The BTX treated artery was significantly larger than all other vessels on POD 14 (p < 0.05) as well as all prior time points (p < 0.01). Direct perivascular application of BTX increases the diameter of rat femoral vessels as early as POD 1. The affect is most robust on POD 14 where the artery was significantly larger than all other vessels at all time points. It is likely that the increased diameter of blood vessels results in an increased blood flow across the area of dilation. Such an increase in flow may serve to improve end-organ perfusion in microvascular procedures.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Comparison of pretreatment artery and BTX-treated artery on day 14. Increase in artery diameter 14 days after treatment with BTX. The vessel shown in a and b is the same vessel with equivalent scales in each image. Arrows indicate location of marking sutures in b.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Comparison of saline- (a) and BTX-treated (b) arteries on day 14. Artery diameter is significantly increased in the BTX-treated artery. Scales in the two images are equivalent.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Average diameter of BTX- vs. saline-treated arteries. There is a trend towards dilation of both treatment groups beginning on day 0 to 1, with a maximal dilation on day 14. Statistical significance was found on day 14 between the BTX-treated arteries compared to saline-treated arteries (p < 0.05) as well as between day 14 BTX-treated arteries compared to all previous time points of BTX-treated arteries (p < 0.01). Vessel diameters decreased for both groups on day 28.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Average diameter of BTX- vs. saline-treated veins. A trend towards dilation of both treatment groups was seen beginning on day 1 with a maximal dilation seen on day 14. There were no significant differences identified between the two treatment groups. Again, diameters decreased on day 28.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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