title: [Effects of human urotensin II on pia mater microcirculation in rats].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the effects of human urotensin II (hUII) on in vivo pia mater microcirculation in rats.
  
  
  METHODS
  Adult SD rats were randomly assigned to the following groups: control, sodium chloride injection (NS), UII(10(-6) mol/L), noradrenaline (NA, 10(-6) mol/L), and UII (10(-6) mol/L) + NA (10(-6) mol/L) groups. For recording of microcirculation images in pia mater, skull windows were performed and mounted on the stage of an intravital microscope equipped with a TV camera. Video images of microcirculation were stored by a video cassette recorder. Temporal changes in internal diameter and microcirculatory velocity of microvessels were measured by computer using the Image Pro software. The blood flow in cerebral tissues were measured with PIMII laser Doppler perfusion Imager (Lisca, Sweden).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The internal diameters of arterioles and venules in control group were (35.4 +/- 3.6) microm and (40.6 +/- 8.5) microm, respectively. In UII group, the arterioles and venules contracted immediately after treated with UII and up to the peak at 1 min, the internal diameters of arterioles and venules were (25.6 +/- 3.4) microm and (23.4 +/- 3.3) microm, respectively (P < 0.05). Both microcirculatory velocity in arterioles and venules had no significant changes in UII group (P > 0.05). The blood flow in meninges increased 1 min after treated with UII and up to high peak at 5 min (3.5 +/- 0.4 perfusion unit vs. control 2.3 +/- 0.6, P < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  hUII can contract microvessels in pia mater of rats and increase microcirculatory blood perfusion to cerebral tissue involved.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathophysiology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China.
authors.forename: Xiu-Hua
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Feng-Ying
authors.initials: FY
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Li-Rong
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Niu
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Chao-Shu
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Tang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008833:Microcirculation / Q000187:drug effects*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014579:Urotensins / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D014579:Urotensins; C029677:urotensin II