There are transmural differences in the structure of arteries across the left ventricular wall. For example, for arteries of the same size, wall thickness is greater in arteries of the epicardium than those from the endocardium. This observation suggests that there could be differences in their passive and active length-tension relationships, as different amounts of connective tissue or smooth muscle would be expected to alter these characteristics. We tested this hypothesis by studying similarly sized porcine coronary arteries from opposite transmural locations. Endocardial arteries had a diameter of 389 ± 33 μm (n = 8), while epicardial arteries measured 388 ± 50 μm (n = 6). A wire myograph was used to study the mechanical properties of these arteries under isometric conditions in Krebs-Henseleit buffer at 37 °C. Arteries were cut into rings with an axial length of 2 mm. Rings were repetitively stimulated to contract at increasing lengths with the addition of high extracellular K+ (80 mM). Coronary arteries developed active tension to a plateau level over approximately 3-5 min and K+-induced contractions readily washed out. Arteries from the epicardium were stiffer, as the passive-length tension curve of these vessels was elevated over arteries from the endocardium. Passive tensions at optimal length were 3.2 ± 0.4 vs. 5.6 ± 1.5 mN/mm (p < 0.05). The active tension developed in response to K+ depolarization was greater in epicardial arteries. Active tensions at optimal length were 3.4 ± 1.1 vs. 2.4 ± 0.3 mN/mm (p < 0.05). Our results represent the first comparison of transmural differences in coronary arteries under isometric tension. Our findings support the hypothesis that differences exist in the passive and active length-tension relationships of epicardial and endocardial arteries that correlate with wall thickness. R01HL158723 This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

The local metabolic hypothesis proposes that myocardial oxygen tension, indexed by coronary venous PO2 (CvPO2), determines the degree of coronary pressure‐flow autoregulation by increasing the production of vasodilator metabolites as coronary perfusion pressure (CPP) is reduced. We tested this hypothesis by examining the extent to which exaggeration of the metabolic error signal influences coronary autoregulatory capability. Experiments were performed in anesthetized, open chest swine (n = 8) in which the left anterior descending coronary artery was cannulated and connected to a servo‐controlled roller pump system. This allowed CPP to be reduced from 140 to 40 mmHg in increments of 10 mmHg before and during hypoxemia (PaO2 from 138 ± 5 to 34 ± 1 mmHg). Under control‐normoxic conditions, CvPO2 decreased from 33 ± 1 to 20 ± 1 mmHg and coronary blood flow fell from 0.81 ± 0.09 to 0.35 ± 0.04 ml/min/g as CPP was reduced from 140 to 40 mmHg. Hypoxemia augmented myocardial oxygen consumption (P < 0.01), increased coronary blood flow (P < 0.0001), and reduced CvPO2 (22 ± 1 to 14 ± 1 mmHg; P < 0.0001) over the same range of CPPs. Increases in coronary blood flow during hypoxemia were sufficient to maintain myocardial oxygen delivery at values equivalent to normoxic conditions (P = 0.20). Calculation of closed‐loop autoregulatory gain (Gc) over a CPP range of 120 to 60 mmHg (value of 1 represents perfect autoregulation) demonstrated that Gc was improved from 0.18 ± 0.05 to 0.45 ± 0.14 under normoxic vs. hypoxemic conditions respectively (P = 0.02). Gc was also inversely related to CvPO2 and the slope increased ~4‐fold by hypoxemia. These findings support that coronary pressure‐flow autoregulatory capability is augmented by hypoxemia‐induced increases in the local metabolic error signal.