Longitudinal tension of anterior tibial artery segments during constrictor responses.

Longitudinal tensions were recorded from in situ isolated segments of dog anterior tibial arteries during vasoconstrictor responses. Two factors appeared to be responsible for longitudinal tensions occurring during vasoconstrictor responses. One was due to changes in intraluminal pressure and appeared to be the dominant factor. Increases in intraluminal pressures produced decreases in longitudinal tensions, indicating that the vessel segments were elongated. Thus, increases in intraluminal pressure passively stretched the blood vessel walls so that increases in both the circumferential and longitudinal axes of the vessel segment occurred. These findings agree with similar findings reported earlier (4, 7, 8). The other factor was apparently due to changes in longitudinal tension produced by vascular smooth muscle contraction. In some cases longitudinal tension changes were positive, in others they were negative. Increases in longitudinal tension were probably the result of contractions of helical smooth muscle elements. Decreases in tension may have been due to displacement of tissue parallel to the long axis of the vessel as smooth muscle elements contracted.