Functional specializations of the vascular bed of soleus

Abstract

1. The venous outflow from the slow soleus muscle, at rest and during exercise, was compared with that of fast muscles. The blood flow through the soleus at rest was found to be, on average, 52 ml./100 g.min, which is about 4 times that of fast muscles.2. On stimulation of soleus through its motor nerve at low frequencies, up to 8/sec, hardly any increase in flow was observed, whereas fast muscles stimulated at the same rates showed a marked increase, the maximal functional hyperaemia being reached at 8/sec. Even when the soleus muscle was stimulated at frequencies of 40/sec the post-contraction hyperaemia was very small and sometimes absent.3. The relative absence of functional hyperaemia in the soleus does not appear to be due to low vascular tone, for small amounts of acetylcholine, injected close arterially, produced a considerable increase in blood flow. Further, in experiments in which the vascular tone was increased by lumbar sympathetic stimulation, no functional hyperaemia was seen. It is concluded that a contracting soleus does not release in adequate amounts the substance causing functional vasodilatation in fast muscles.4. No vasodilator effect of adrenaline could be demonstrated in soleus, and the vasodilator effect of isoprenaline was much smaller than that seen in fast muscles.5. The vasoconstrictor effect of lumbar sympathetic stimulation on the resistance vessels of soleus was much smaller than the effect seen in fast muscles. However, the responses of the resistance vessels in soleus to close arterial injections of noradrenaline were not very different from those of fast muscles, and it is suggested that the density of the terminal sympathetic innervation of the vessels of soleus differs from that of fast muscles.