Regulation of skeletal muscle blood flow during exercise

A number of mechanisms govern the rapid and precise changes in blood flow which occur in skeletal muscle with alterations in metabolic demand. Such mechanisms include sympathetic activity, functional sympatholysis, conducted vasodilation, flow mediated dilation and compounds which stimulate formation of endothelium derived vasodilators. Compounds identified to be of importance in vasodilation include nitric oxide, prostacyclin, potassium and nucleotides. In this review we briefly describe some of the basic mechanisms and present selected contemporary contributions to the field. The main focus is on basic regulation of exercise hyperemia but aspects of training, age and sex have also been included.