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Objective-Collateral artery growth (arteriogenesis) is an important adaptive response to hampered arterial perfusion.It is unknown whether preventive physical exercise before limb ischemia can improve arteriogenesis and modulate mononuclear cell function. This study aimed at investigating the effects of endurance exercise before arterial occlusion on MNC function and collateral artery growth. Approach and Results-After 3 weeks of voluntary treadmill exercise, ligation of the right femoral artery was performed in mice. Hindlimb perfusion immediately after surgery did not differ from sedentary mice. However, previous exercise improved perfusion restoration ≤7 days after femoral artery ligation, also when exercise was stopped at ligation. This was accompanied by an accumulation of peri-collateral macrophages and increased expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in hindlimb collateral and in MNC of blood and spleen. Systemic monocyte and macrophage depletion by liposomal clodronate but not splenectomy attenuated exercise-induced perfusion restoration, collateral artery growth, peri-collateral macrophage accumulation, and upregulation of iNOS. iNOS-deficient mice did not show exercise-induced perfusion restoration. Transplantation of bone marrow-derived MNC from iNOSdeficient mice into wild-type animals inhibited exercise-induced collateral artery growth. In contrast to sedentary controls, thrice weekly aerobic exercise training for 6 months in humans increased peripheral blood MNC iNOS expression. Conclusions-Circulating mononuclear cell-derived inducible nitric oxide is an important mediator of exercise-induced collateral artery growth.

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Aims:We aimed at developing a structured study protocol utilizing the bibliographic web-application science performance evaluation (SciPE) to perform comprehensive scientometric analyses.Methods and results: Metadata related to publications derived from online databases were processed and visualized by transferring the information to an undirected multipartite graph and distinct partitioned sets of nodes. Also, institutionspecific data was normalized and merged allowing precise geocoordinate positioning, to enable heatmapping and valid identification. As a result, verified, processed data regarding articles, institutions, journals, authors gender, nations and subject categories can be obtained. We recommend including the total number of publications, citations, the population, research institutions, gross domestic product, and the country-specific modified Hirsch-Index and to form corresponding ratios (e.g. population/publication). Also, our approach includes implementation of bioinformatical methods such as heatmapping based on exact geocoordinates, simple chord diagrams, and the central implementation of specific ratios with plain visualization techniques. Conclusion:This protocol allows precise conduction of contemporaneous scientometric analyses based on bioinformatic and meta-analytical techniques allowing to evaluate and contextualize scientific efforts. Data presentation with the depicted visualization techniques are mandatory for transparent and consistent analyses of research output across different nations and topics. Research performance can then be discussed in a synopsis of all findings.