Skeletal muscle microvascular and interstitial from rest to contractions

Key points Oxygen pressure gradients across the microvascular walls are essential for oxygen diffusion from blood to tissue cells. At any given flux, the magnitude of these transmural gradients is proportional to the local resistance. The greatest resistance to oxygen transport into skeletal muscle is considered to reside in the short distance between red blood cells and myocytes. Although crucial to oxygen transport, little is known about transmural pressure gradients within skeletal muscle during contractions. We evaluated oxygen pressures within both the skeletal muscle microvascular and interstitial spaces to determine transmural gradients during the rest–contraction transient in anaesthetized rats. The significant transmural gradient observed at rest was sustained during submaximal muscle contractions. Our findings support that the blood–myocyte interface provides substantial resistance to oxygen diffusion at rest and during contractions and suggest that modulations in microvascular haemodynamics and red blood cell distribution constitute primary mechanisms driving increased transmural oxygen flux with contractions. Abstract Oxygen pressure ( ) gradients across the blood–myocyte interface are required for diffusive O 2 transport, thereby supporting oxidative metabolism. The greatest resistance to O 2 flux into skeletal muscle is considered to reside between the erythrocyte surface and adjacent sarcolemma, although this has not been measured during contractions. We tested the hypothesis that O 2 gradients between skeletal muscle microvascular ( ) and interstitial ( ) spaces would be present at rest and maintained or increased during contractions. and were determined via phosphorescence quenching (Oxyphor probes G2 and G4, respectively) in the exposed rat spinotrapezius during the rest–contraction transient (1 Hz, 6 V; n = 8). was higher than in all instances from rest (34.9 ± 6.0 versus 15.7 ± 6.4) to contractions (28.4 ± 5.3 versus 10.6 ± 5.2 mmHg, respectively) such that the mean gradient throughout the transient was 16.9 ± 6.6 mmHg ( P < 0.05 for all). No differences in the amplitude of fall with contractions were observed between the microvasculature and interstitium (10.9 ± 2.3 versus 9.0 ± 3.5 mmHg, respectively; P > 0.05). However, the speed of the fall during contractions was slower than that of (time constant: 12.8 ± 4.7 versus 9.0 ± 5.1 s, respectively; P < 0.05). Consistent with our hypothesis, a significant transmural gradient was sustained (but not increased) from rest to contractions. This supports that the blood–myocyte interface is the site of a substantial gradient driving O 2 diffusion during metabolic transients. Based on Fick's law, elevated O 2 flux with contractions must thus rely primarily on modulations in effective diffusing capacity (mainly erythrocyte haemodynamics and distribution) as the gradient is not increased.