Angela Glean, M.S.

she/her

Education: Bachelor of Science in kinesiology (December 2014)

Master of Science in kinesiology from Kansas State University

McNair Project: Effects of Nitrite Infusion on Exercising Skeletal Muscle Vascular Control in Chronic Heart Failure Rats (2014)

Mentor: Timothy Musch, Ph.D.

Diminished nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability in chronic heart failure (CHF) underlies, in part, impaired vascular control, reduced muscle blood flow (BF), and exercise intolerance. Nitrite (NO2-) has been implicated as a major storage pool of NO. We tested the hypothesis that NO2- infusion would increase exercising skeletal muscle BF and vascular conductance (VC) in CHF rats. CHF was induced in 7 adult, male Sprague-Dawley rats (coronary artery ligation). After 21 days, skeletal muscle BF (radiolabelled microspheres) and mean arterial pressure (MAP; carotid artery catheter) were measured during submaximal treadmill exercise (20 m/min, 5% incline) prior to (CHF) and following NO2- infusion (CHF+NO2-, 5 mg/kg). Following microsphere infusion, blood was sampled to determine exercising blood [lactate]. Exercising skeletal muscle BF (CHF: 103±9, CHF+NO2-: 112±8 ml/min/100g; p=0.18) and MAP (CHF: 123±5, CHF+NO2-: 120±5 mmHg, p=0.33) was not different between groups. NO2- increased exercising skeletal muscle VC (CHF: 0.86±0.10, CHF+NO2‑: 0.91±0.10 ml/min/100g/mmHg; p<0.05) and blood [lactate] (CHF: 1.5±0.2, CHF+NO2-: 3.4±0.4 mmol/L, p<0.05). These data suggest that NO2- may improve exercising vascular control in CHF rats. Further investigations are needed to determine doses that maximize vascular and metabolic function.