With two or three prescribed boundary conditions, predicted flows showed relatively small errors in most segments and fewer than 10% incorrect flow directions on average. Conclusions:  The proposed method can be used to estimate

flow rates in microvascular networks, based on incomplete boundary data, and provides a basis for deducing functional properties of microvessel networks. “
“The risk for cardiovascular disease increases with advancing age; however, the chronological development of heart disease differs in males and females. The purpose of this study was to determine whether age-induced alterations in responses of coronary arterioles to the endogenous vasoconstrictor, endothelin,

are sex-specific. Coronary arterioles were isolated from young and old male and female rats to assess vasoconstrictor responses PD0325901 purchase to endothelin (ET), and ETa and ETb receptor inhibitors were used to assess receptor-specific signaling. In intact arterioles from males, ET-induced vasoconstriction was reduced with age, whereas age increased vasoconstrictor responses to ET in intact arterioles from female rats. In intact arterioles Selleck Romidepsin from both sexes, blockade of either ETa or ETb eliminated age-related differences in responses to ET; however, denudation of arterioles from both sexes revealed age-related differences in ETa-mediated vasoconstriction. In arterioles from male rats, ETa receptor protein decreased, whereas ETb receptor protein increased with age. In coronary arterioles from females, neither ETa nor ETb receptor protein

changed with age, suggesting age-related changes in ET signaling occur downstream of ET receptors. Thus, aging-induced alterations in responsiveness of the coronary resistance vasculature to endothelin are sex-specific, Immune system possibly contributing to sexual dimorphism in the risk of cardiovascular disease with advancing age. “
“Please cite this paper as: Gould, Vadakkan, Poché and Dickinson (2011). Multifractal and Lacunarity Analysis of Microvascular Morphology and Remodeling. Microcirculation18(2), 136–151. Objective:  Classical measures of vessel morphology, including diameter and density, are employed to study microvasculature in endothelial membrane labeled mice. These measurements prove sufficient for some studies; however, they are less well suited for quantifying changes in microcirculatory networks lacking hierarchical structure. We demonstrate that automated multifractal analysis and lacunarity may be used with classical methods to quantify microvascular morphology. Methods:  Using multifractal analysis and lacunarity, we present an automated extraction tool with a processing pipeline to characterize 2D representations of 3D microvasculature. We apply our analysis on four tissues and the hyaloid vasculature during remodeling.