Abstract
In health, PVAT secretes anti-contractile factors that relax the underlying artery. PVAT’s contributions to vascular function include more than production of vasoactive substances. We hypothesized that PVAT benefits the artery by assisting the function of stress (–induced) relaxation. Thoracic aorta rings from Sprague Dawley rats were mounted in isolated tissue baths with (+) and without (−) PVAT. A cumulative length tension (0–6 grams) was generated. The tension to which the tissue stress relaxed over 30 minutes was recorded; the tension lost was stress relaxation. The presence of PVAT increased the amount of stress relaxation (final tension in mgs; aortic ring −PVAT = 4578 ± 190; aortic ring + PVAT = 2730 ± 274, p < 0.05). PVAT left attached but not encompassing the aorta provided no benefit in cumulative stress relaxation (aortic ring +/− PVAT = 4122 ± 176; p > 0.05 vs −PVAT). A PVAT ring separated from the aorta demonstrated more profound stress relaxation than did the aortic ring itself. Finally, PVAT-assisted stress relaxation was observed in an artery with white fat (superior mesenteric artery) and in aorta from both male and female of another rat strain, the Dahl S rat. Knowledge of this new PVAT function supports PVAT as an essential player in vascular health.
Highlights
Perivascular adipose tissue [PVAT1] was routinely dissected from the blood vessel when studying contractility in isolated vessels
The PVAT of the thoracic aorta from the male and female Dahl S rat assisted stress relaxation (Fig. 6b,c, respectively). These results support that the ability of PVAT to assist in arterial stress relaxation is neither specific to one vessel bed nor one rat strain. These experiments were done with the purpose of determining whether PVAT has the ability to aid arterial stress relaxation
Using classic isolated tissue bath techniques, we discovered that does PVAT assist arterial stress relaxation but it itself has the profound ability to stress relax
Summary
Perivascular adipose tissue [PVAT1] was routinely dissected from the blood vessel when studying contractility in isolated vessels. In which PVAT from a healthy rat was incubated, to isolated, contracted rat thoracic aorta with no PVAT caused a direct relaxation[4]. We test the hypothesis that PVAT provides structural benefit to the artery by assisting the function of stress relaxation. While the focus was primarily on the thoracic aorta of the Sprague Dawley rat, we tested this hypothesis in an artery with a primarily white fat PVAT, the superior mesenteric artery[37], to determine if stress relaxation was fat-type dependent. We determined whether PVAT-dependent stress relaxation could be more generalized to the rat and female by using the thoracic aorta from the Dahl S male and female rat[38]. The present studies support the ability of PVAT to assist stress relaxation
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