New Intravital Skeletal Muscle Preparation for Oxygen Transport Investigations

Abstract

A dual camera intravital video microscopy system has been developed to measure the oxygen saturation of red blood cells flowing through capillaries in vivo (Ellis et al., 1990), and to display and directly evaluate red blood cell dynamics in these same vessels (Ellis et al., 1992). Using this system one can obtain a complete description of the convective transport of oxygen in capillaries in vivo. This new technology has been applied only to the retractor muscle of hamsters (Ellsworth and Pittman, 1990; Stein et al., 1993). The objective of this study was to develop a similar muscle preparation in the rat that could be used to compare oxygen transport findings between species which would be relevant to other ongoing projects in the laboratory studying hyperdynamic sepsis.