Figure 1.

Serotonin (5-HT)-induced contraction in femoral (A and B) and carotid (C and D) arteries rings with functional endothelium in the presence (+muscle) or absence (−muscle) of respective skeletal muscle tissue from male (A and C) and female (B and D) Wistar animals. The figure bar graph represents the area under the curve (AUC) to 5-HT in the presence or absence of skeletal muscle in both arteries and sex. This figure highlights an anti-contractile effect of skeletal muscle surrounding the femoral, absent in the skeletal muscle surrounding the carotid arteries (E). The results are expressed as the mean ± SEM. The number of animals used in each experiment (n) is expressed in parentheses or dots. Statistic: t test (*P < 0.05; **P < 0.01).