Selective cooling of the brain during heat stress has been shown by others to be a method of temperature regulation for mammals having carotid retia. This study describes the macroscopic anatomy of the cranial circulation of elk, deer and pronghorn as it might pertain to the functioning of carotid retia and orbital retia as heat exchangers. Emphasis has been placed on describing the source of venous blood bathing these retia, for blood flow from these sources to the ophthalmic plexus and cavernous sinus will establish a temperature difference between arterial and venous blood, and influence the magnitude of this gradient. The pronghorn possesses a carotid rete with greater density and smaller calibre vessels overall and a more highly vascular orbital rete compared to the elk and the deer. These anatomical differences may indicate differences in efficiency of heat exchange in the retia. It is suggested that the orbital rete is anatomically in a position to moderate extremes of temperature by cooling arterial blood flowing to neural tissue of the eye and olfactory bulbs.
Pygmy goats in the last third of pregnancy were trained to walk on a treadmill at rates up to 2.0 mph and up an inclination of 0-15 degrees. Electromagnetic flowmeters were placed unilaterally on a uterine artery, and measurements were made while the goats were standing quietly on the treadmill and during 5 min of exercise. Blood flow fell during exercise in all five animals studied, and this reduction was proportional to the level of exertion. At the highest level of exercise that these animals would voluntarily perform, uterine artery blood flow fell by 32 +/- 3 (SE) % (P less than 0.001) from control. In four additional animals the radioactive microsphere technique was used to measure uterine blood flow at rest and after 5-7 min of exercise. In these animals, exercise caused total uterine blood flow to fall by 18 +/- 10%; cotyledonary (placental) blood flow fell by 8 +/- 13%, while myoendometrial blood flow decreased by 52 +/- 12% (P less than 0.05). Thus nonplacental portions of the pregnant Pygmy goat uterus suffer major reductions in blood flow during exercise. This vasoconstriction may be due to exercise per se or to concomitant hypocapnia or hyperthermia. Singleton and twin kids born to animals that exercised were of normal birth weight.
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