MCS Featured Lab - October 2019

Research Description:

My research program centres around the issue of how peripheral blood flow is regulated. We use skeletal muscle as a model to investigate how cells of a tissue can communicate with blood vessels in order to ensure adequate blood flow to the working cells. There is a direct relationship between skeletal muscle metabolic rate and blood flow. This type of relationship requires that active skeletal muscle cells communicate their need for blood flow to the cells of the vasculature, endothelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells, and that these cells intercommunicate in order to direct adequate blood flow to the active skeletal muscle fibres. I am interested in this intercellular communication. Currently we are investigating the role of capillaries in these processes. We are investigating how capillaries are stimulated by contracting skeletal muscle fibres, and how capillaries are communicating and coordinating upstream arterioles that control their perfusion.

Lab Website:

https://www.uoguelph.ca/hhns/people/dr-coral-murrant

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/CoralMurrant

Top lesson you have learned in your career:

Its really all about the people, the relationships you build, the connections you make.

Recent Publications:

• Capillary endothelial cells as coordinators of skeletal muscle blood flow during active hyperemia. Murrant CL, Lamb IR, Novielli NM. Microcirculation 2017 (PMID 28036147)
• Capillary response to skeletal muscle contraction: evidence that redundancy between vasodilators is physiologically relevant during active hyperaemia. Lamb IR, Novielli NM, Murrant CL. J Physiol. 2018 Apr 15;596(8):1357-1372. (PMID: 29417589)
• Arteriolar and capillary responses to CO₂ and H⁺ in hamster skeletal muscle microvasculature: Implications for active hyperemia. Charter ME, Lamb IR, Murrant CL. Microcirculation. 2018 Oct;25(7):e12494. (PMID: 30030943)