Oxygenation and perfusion of rabbit tibialis anterior muscle subjected to different patterns of electrical stimulation

Dual amperometric microelectrodes were used to measure local pO2 and perfusion at multiple sites in the fast-twitch tibialis anterior muscles of anaesthetized rabbits. Six muscles were stimulated continuously at 10, 5, or 2.5 Hz. For all three frequencies, perfusion declined to about 50% of resting levels and recovered after stimulation. These changes corresponded to a rise followed by a fall in extracellular pO2. The highest levels of pO2 were reached during stimulation at 10 Hz. Eight muscles were stimulated tetanically at 100 Hz for 200 ms with duty cycles that were varied between 1.3 and 20.0%. Perfusion rose to 8.7 +/- 2.0 ml s(-1) 100 g(-1) at a duty cycle of 5% and declined with further increases in duty cycle. pO2 was depressed for duty cycles less than 10% but rose above resting levels at higher duty cycles. It is suggested that the paradoxical combination of elevated pO2 and depressed perfusion is attributable to stimulation conditions that exceed the oxygen transport capacity of a fast muscle.