Abstract
While various lymphatic vessels networks are shown to adapt their contractility to changes in wall stretch and wall shear stress, until now, little is known on physiological characteristics of uterine lymphatic vessels (LV) in both the non‐pregnant and pregnant uterus. In this study we for the first time performed detailed evaluation of the contractile characteristics of the collecting uterine LV from ~250 g female non‐pregnant Sprague‐Dawley rats. Changes in lymphatic diameter were recorded with their subsequent analysis and calculation of the lymphatic pump indices of isolated, cannulated and pressurized rat uterine LV at different ranges of pressure and imposed flow in control conditions and after L‐NAME application. We found, that pressure stimulates contractility of rat uterine LV with contraction amplitude and pumping maximum at 1 cm H2O, while contraction frequency is almost stretch‐insensitive. NO had only a minor involvement in this regulation. These vessels also demonstrated a minor imposed‐flow/ wall shear stress‐dependent inhibition of tone, contraction amplitude and pump flow, but not contraction frequency. L‐NAME did not eliminate this flow/shear dependency, but induced flow‐independent shifts of all parameters of contractility of these vessels. In summary, our preliminary data show that uterine LV possesses unique contractile patterns different from other regional LV. NIH RO1 HL‐070308
Published Version
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