Fig. 3.

Length-tension relations in ovine carotid arteries. Carotid artery segments of fetal and adult sheep were wire mounted and stretched to regular multiples of unstressed baseline diameter (D/D₀) ranging from 1.0 to 3.0. At each stretch ratio, contractile responses to 122 mM K⁺ were recorded and then normalized relative to maximum response. Error bars indicate SE for a total of 10 artery segments from 5 fetuses and 12 artery segments from 6 adult sheep.