The distribution of blood flow between individual muscles and non-muscular tissues in the hind limb of the young ox (Bos taurus): values at thermoneurality and during exposuer to cold

Abstract

1. The radioactive microspheres method was used to measure the distribution of blood flow in the hind leg in conscious young steers exposed to thermoneutral and moderately cold environments. Simultaneous measurement of total leg blood flow allowed calculation of blood flow (ml. 100 g tissue-1 min-1) to individual muscles and the major non-muscular tissues in the leg. 2. In the thermoneutral environment, leg blood flow was distributed approximately according to tissue weight, so that about 65% went to muscle and the remainder to bone, skin, connective tissue and fat; 1-7-11-5% of the injected dose of microspheres was found in the lungs, indicating the presence of functioning arteriovenous anastomoses in the leg. 3. During cold exposure leg blood flow increased two-and-a-half fold and 91% of this increase was due to increased blood flow in muscle. This was accompanied by substantial decreases in both total and capillary blood flow in leg skin in three of the four animals. 4. Values for resting tissue blood flow to the six largest individual leg muscles were compared, as well as that for tissue blood flow to the remaining leg muscle. Blood flow in the three large upper thigh muscles (biceps femoris, semimembranosus and semitendinosus) was about half that in muscles in the rest of the leg. 5. Cold exposure caused a threefold increase in total leg muscle blood flow, but the only individual muscles to respond substantially in all four animals were the vastus lateralis and the rectus femoris. Comparison of results from individual animals suggested a relation between total leg blood flow and the number of muscles (apart from vastus lateralis and rectus femoris) involved in shivering. Leg adipose tissue blood flow also increased significantly in the cold.