Fig 1.
Timeline of the experimental protocol.
LPS lipopolysaccharide, HSA human serum albumin.
Table 1.
Variations in mean arterial pressure and heart rate throughout the experiment in all groups.
Fig 2.
Variations in microcirculatory parameters throughout the experiment: (a) total vessel density, (b) perfused vessel density, (c) percentage of perfused vessels, (d) microcirculatory flow index, (e) flow heterogeneity index, (f) blood flow velocity.
Six animals per group were studied. One rat in the LPS group died after t1, leaving 5 animals in this group at t2 (post-HSA). Two rats died after t2 in the LPS+4%HSA and three rats died after t2 in the LPS+20%HSA groups, leaving 4 and 3 rats at t3 respectively. Since only 2 animals were alive in the LPS and LPS+0.9%NaCl groups at t3, these were excluded from statistical analysis at this time point and are not presented in the graph. Data are expressed as median [interquartile range]. LPS lipopolysaccharide; HSA Human Serum Albumin. *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001, versus SHAM; #p<0.05, ##p<0.01, ###p<0.001, versus LPS; ɸ p<0.05, ɸɸ p<0.01, versus LPS+0.9%NaCl.
Fig 3.
Examples of the skeletal muscle microcirculation at t2 (end of fluid resuscitation) for all the study groups.