Skeletal muscle blood flow in vivo: detection with rubidium-82 and effects of glucose, insulin, and exercise.
In order to assess the effects of glucose, insulin, and exercise on skeletal muscle blood flow in vivo, we measured positron emission from the thigh muscle of anesthetized rabbits after simultaneous aortic bolus injection of 82Rb and radiolabeled microspheres (15 micron diameter). Estimates of flow with 82Rb were based on first-pass regional extraction of 82Rb by skeletal muscle. Flow estimates were made serially as a function of variations in plasma glucose and insulin and changing the muscle contractile state by electrical stimulation. Flow ranged from 3.1 ml/min/100 g at rest to 71 ml/min/100 g during stimulation. There was good agreement between the two methods of flow measurement over the entire range of flows (r = 0.96 at a slope of 0.90). Flow measured by either method did not vary significantly from baseline over a range of plasma glucose from 5 to 30 mM and plasma insulin from 0 to 20 microU/ml. When flow was increased up to 20-fold by electrical stimulation there was a decrease in extraction of 82Rb proportional to the increase in flow. However, at pharmacologic levels of insulin (greater than 150 microU/ml) flow was increased twofold as measured by radiolabeled microspheres, but not as measured by rubidium. There was no apparent decrease in extraction of 82Rb with high insulin. The discrepancy between the microsphere measured flow and rubidium measured flow with high plasma insulin levels can be explained by the assumption that the expected decrease in the extraction fraction was counteracted by an increase in Na+/K+-ATPase activity. It is concluded that the first-pass flow model gives valid estimates of skeletal muscle blood flow in vivo with 82Rb, provided that plasma insulin levels are normal.