Capillary spatial pattern and muscle fiber geometry in three hamster striated muscles

The primary goal of this project was to elucidate the spatial pattern of capillaries in three hamster striated muscles according to statistical techniques of pattern analysis. The spatial pattern of capillaries and traditional measures of capillarity are important to understanding the supply and distribution of oxygen and nutrients in a tissue. Statistical tests based on the distance between nearest neighbor capillaries are the most sensitive for detecting regularity in a pattern. A mathematical model was created to simulate the observed muscle fields. The same statistical tests that were performed on the empirical data were performed on the modelled data. The results of the analysis of the modelled data agree sufficiently with those of the empirical data to justify overall confidence in the assumptions. Conclusions that may be drawn from this investigation are (1) the spatial pattern of capillaries tends to be more regular than random and never was there evidence for aggregation using the test statistics; (2) as many as 60-75% of capillaries are located at the corners of muscle fibers indicating that there is some preferential placement for capillaries, and (3) the model developed is a good first approximation to the real situation.