Endothelium regulates skeletal muscle microcirculation by a blood flow velocity-sensing mechanism.

In rat cremaster muscle, utilizing parallel arteriolar occlusion, we found that an increase in red blood cell (RBC) velocity (3.5-26.5 mm/s) per se induced an increase in diameter (1.5-9.4 microns) of arterioles (mean control diam 21.5 +/- 0.6 microns; n = 25). The dilation of arterioles appeared only when RBC velocity increased and started always with a delay (mean 8.4 +/- 0.5 s) after the increase in flow velocity. A positive linear correlation was found between peak changes in RBC velocity and diameter (r = 0.87, P less than 0.05). The velocity sensor as well as the mechanism(s) that mediates this response is likely to be located in endothelial cells, because the dilation to increased RBC velocity was completely eliminated after impairment of arteriolar endothelium with light-dye (L-D) treatment. The in vivo demonstration of this phenomenon in arterioles suggests the existence of a new endothelium-dependent, flow velocity-sensitive mechanism for the regulation of blood flow in the microcirculation.