Fig. 1.

Arterial structure and contractility are altered by chronic hypoxia. Arteries from sheep subjected to hypoxic acclimatization exhibited increased medial thickness (left) and stiffness (middle) compared with the normoxic control group. In contrast, stress strain experiments showed a decreased maximum stretch ratio as well as peak myogenic tone in arteries from hypoxic sheep compared with normoxic control sheep (right). Results are presented as means ± SE for n = 8 for normoxic arteries and n = 11 for hypoxic arteries. *P < 0.05 denotes comparative significant differences.