A Mathematical Analysis of the Myogenic Hypothesis with Special Reference to Autoregulation of Renal Blood Flow

Pien, Alf H.
Aukland, Knut

Department of Applied Mathematics and Department of Physiology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

Address for reprints: K. Auk/and, Department of Physiology, Arstadveien 19, 5000 Bergen, Norway.

Parts of this work were presented at the 66th annual meeting of the Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology, New Orleans, April 21, 1982 (fed Proc 41: 1256).

Received May 14, 1982; accepted for publication December 2, 1982.

Circulation Research 52(3):p 241-252, March 1983.

SUMMARY

To test the hypothesis that autoregulation of renal blood flow could result from myogenic regulation of arterial/arteriolar wall tension, we have explored a model based on the assumptions that (1) each preglomerular vessel segment reacts to a change in transmural pressure by altering its internal radius until the initial change in wall tension is reduced by a gain factor, (2) postglomerular structural resistance remains unchanged, (3) extravascular tissue pressure equals intrarenal venous pressure, and (4) the renal vascular system can be represented by one unbranched tube.