Responses of the arterial and venous vessels of the skeletal muscle to norepinephrine following damage to their endothelium

Abstract

The functional activity of vascular endothelium in a muscle preparation from the feline gastrocnemius is impaired with ethanol, which results in an increase of an adrenergic responsiveness of the arterial compartment of the vascular bed. The exchange function of the microvessels changes little. Veins exhibit nonuniform changes in their responsiveness after exposure of their endotheliocytes to ethanol.