The Endothelium, Part I Michel Feletou The endothelium, a monolayer of endothelial cells, constitutes the inner cellular lining of the blood vessels (arteries, veins and capillaries) and the lymphatic system, and therefore is in direct contact with the blood/lymph and the circulating cell... Publication Date: 01/01/2011
Skeletal Muscle Circulation Ronald Korthuis The aim of this treatise is to summarize the current understanding of the mechanisms for blood flow control to skeletal muscle under resting conditions, how perfusion is elevated (exercise hyperemia) to meet the increased demand for oxygen and other ... Publication Date: 01/01/2011
Regulation of Endothelial Barrier Function Sarah Yuan, Robert Rigor The vascular endothelium lining the inner surface of blood vessels serves as the first interface for circulating blood components to interact with cells of the vascular wall and surrounding extravascular tissues. In addition to regulating blood deliv... Publication Date: 01/01/2011
Regulation of Cardiac Contractility R. John Solaro Contractility describes the relative ability of the heart to eject a stroke volume (SV) at a given prevailing afterload (arterial pressure) and preload (end-diastolic volume; EDV). Various measures of contractility are related to the fraction as the ... Publication Date: 01/01/2011
Reactive Oxygen Species and the Cardiovascular System Augusto Montezano, Rhian Touyz Reactive oxygen species (ROS) influence various physiological processes including host defense, hormone biosynthesis, and cellular signaling. Increased ROS production (oxidative stress) is implicated in many diseases of the cardiovascular system, inc... Publication Date: 01/01/2011
Motor Function of the Pharynx, Esophagus, and its Sphincters Ravinder Mittal Deglutition or a swallow begins as a voluntary act in the oral cavity but proceeds autonomously in the pharynx and esophagus. Bilateral sequenced activation and inhibition of more than 25 pairs of muscles of mouth, pharynx, larynx, and esophagus is r... Publication Date: 01/01/2011
Intestinal Immune System Soichiro Miura, Ryota Hokari, Shunsuke Komoto In the intestine, a unique immunological system that is different from the systemic immune system exists to provide adaptive immunity in response to luminal bacteria and dietary antigens. There are many lymphoid cell aggregates called gut-associated ... Publication Date: 01/01/2011
Hemorheology and Hemodynamics Giles Cokelet From the perspective of blood flow, blood has some unusual properties: it is a suspension of blood cells of which the red blood cells are most numerous and are both deformable (at moderate and high flow rates) and will aggregate under conditions of s... Publication Date: 01/01/2011
Heme Oxygenase and the Kidney David Stec Heme oxygenases (HOs) are the enzymes responsible for the breakdown of heme and the generation of biliverdin/bilirubin and carbon monoxide (CO). The kidney is a complex organ consisting of many different cell types all working together for the single... Publication Date: 01/01/2011
Enteric Nervous System Jackie D. Wood Minute-to-minute behavior of the alimentary tract reflects the integrated functioning of the gut's musculature, secretory glands and blood-lymphatic vasculature. Activity of the three effector systems to generate functionally effective patterns of be... Publication Date: 01/01/2011
Endothelin in the Kidney David Pollock, Erika Boesen The discovery of a potent vasoconstrictor, endothelin (ET)-1, derived from vascular endothelial cells was among a variety of key lines of investigation that helped to fuel a major explosion of studies related to endothelial cell biology. This was par... Publication Date: 01/01/2011
The Gastrointestinal Circulation Peter Kvietys The microcirculation of the gastrointestinal tract is under the control of both myogenic and metabolic regulatory systems. The myogenic mechanism contributes to basal vascular tone and the regulation of transmural pressure, while the metabolic mechan... Publication Date: 01/01/2010
Regulation of Vascular Smooth Muscle Function Raouf Khalil Vascular smooth muscle (VSM) constitutes most of the tunica media in blood vessels and plays an important role in the control of vascular tone. Ca2+ is a major regulator of VSM contraction and is strictly regulated by an intricate system of Ca2+ mobi... Publication Date: 01/01/2010
Platelet-Vessel Wall Interactions in Hemostasis and Thrombosis Rolando Rumbaut, Perumal Thiagarajan Platelets are essential mediators of the physiologic process of hemostasis and pathologic thrombosis. While platelets do not interact with vascular walls under normal conditions, vascular injury or inflammation result in a coordinated series of event... Publication Date: 01/01/2010
Inflammation and the Microcirculation D. Neil Granger, Elena Senchenkova The microcirculation is highly responsive to, and a vital participant in, the inflammatory response. All segments of the microvasculature (arterioles, capillaries, and venules) exhibit characteristic phenotypic changes during inflammation that appear... Publication Date: 01/01/2010
Hepatic Circulation W. Wayne Lautt The Hepatic circulation is unique among vascular beds. The most obvious unique features include the dual vascular supply; the mechanism of intrinsic regulation of the hepatic artery (the hepatic arterial buffer response); the fact that portal blood f... Publication Date: 01/01/2010
Control of Cardiac Output David Young Although cardiac output is measured as the flow of blood from the left ventricle into the aorta, the system that controls cardiac output includes many other components besides the heart itself. The heart's rate of output cannot exceed the rate of ven... Publication Date: 01/01/2010
Capillary Fluid Exchange Joshua Scallan, Virginia Huxley, Ronald Korthuis The partition of fluid between the vascular and interstitial compartments is regulated by forces (hydrostatic and oncotic) operating across the microvascular walls and the surface areas of permeable structures comprising the endothelial barrier to fl... Publication Date: 01/01/2010
Angiogenesis Thomas Adair, Jean-Pierre Montani Angiogenesis is the growth of blood vessels from the existing vasculature. The field of angiogenesis has grown enormously in the past 30 years, with only 40 papers published in 1980 and nearly 6000 in 2010. Why has there been this explosive growth in... Publication Date: 01/01/2010
Linking the World's Information When Sir Tim Berners-Lee first proposed the foundations of the World Wide Web at CERN in 1989, his manager called it “vague, but exciting...