Peripheral vascular control in humans

日常的人类活动要求心血管系统在保持动脉血压的同时，不断调整血流以适应锻炼的肌肉。要实现这些目标，心脏需要调整泵入血管的血量，血管需要扩大或缩小以调节流向肌肉和其他组织的血量。肌肉对血液流动的需求远远超过身体任何其他器官系统，因此运动是心血管系统面临的最大挑战。因此，我的研究计划旨在了解运动中动脉和静脉血管的扩张和缩小是如何控制的。以及衰老和运动训练对血管的影响。尤其是，我的工作重点是运动开始或结束时发生的调整，这些调整决定了血管增宽或变窄的速度。这是因为人类活动的特点是活动水平不断变化，因此，血管的反应速度变得非常重要。我的研究计划的具体目标包括确定1)决定运动中动脉血管快速变宽或变窄的机制2)如何控制静脉的变宽和变窄3)训练和衰老的影响。我们预计会发现，人类的静脉受到与动脉相同的控制(对人类静脉的控制知之甚少，我们是少数几个有能力找到这个问题答案的实验室之一)。我们还预计会发现，当运动做出反应时，衰老会降低血管的功能。但这一点可以通过运动训练得到实质性恢复，这突显了积极活动对维持心血管系统功能的重要性。这项工作将为我们进一步了解血管功能和结构以及影响它的因素提供必要的新信息。这些基础研究为未来的调查提供必要的基础，这些调查旨在了解血管可能如何失去功能，从而影响个人的健康，以及如何预防这种情况。

Everyday human activity requires that the cardiovascular system constantly adjusts blood flow to exercising muscles while maintaining arterial blood pressure.  Accomplishing these goals requires the heart to adjust the amount of blood that it pumps into the blood vessels, and the blood vessels to widen or narrow to adjust how much blood flows to the muscle and to other tissue.  Muscle can increase its demand for blood flow far beyond that of any other organ system in the body, so exercise represents the single greatest challenge to the cardiovascular system.  My research program is therefore aimed at understanding how arterial and venous blood vessel widening and narrowing is controlled in exercise, and how it is affected by aging and exercise training.  In particular, my work has focussed on adjustments that occur when exercise starts or ends which determine how fast the blood vessels widen or narrow.  This is because human activity is characterized by continually changing levels of activity, so the speed with which the blood vessels respond becomes very important.  The specific objectives of my research program include identifying 1) mechanisms determining rapid widening or narrowing of arterial blood vessels in exercise 2) how the widening and narrowing of veins is controlled 3) the effects of training and aging.  We anticipate finding that veins in humans are subject to the same kind of control as arteries (little is known about control of veins in humans, and we are one of only a handful of laboratories equipped to find answers to this question).  We also anticipate finding that aging reduces the function of blood vessels when responding to exercise, but that this can be substantially restored through exercise training, highlighting the importance of being active for maintaining the function of our cardiovascular system.  This work will provide essential, novel information for advancing our understanding of blood vessel function and structure and the factors that influence it.  Such basic research provides the necessary basis for future investigations aimed at understanding how blood vessels might lose their function and therefore affect the health of an individual, and what can be done to prevent that.