Compared to the increase in circumference or diameter (which ranges from 25 to 220% [13, 55, 39, 73, 12, 25, 38, 48, 57, 74, 75]) changes

in axial length may be on the order of 300–500%, at least in the rat [13]. This elongation is structural rather than elastic, because it was measured under unstressed conditions. Viewed from a more integrated, three-dimensional perspective that considers the change in circumference and length (most studies focus on only the former), the extent of hypertrophy becomes even more pronounced. In terms of uterine vascular resistance (and, therefore, effect on blood flow), arterial circumferential vs. axial changes oppose each other as increases in lumen diameter decrease, while increases in length increase resistance. According to Poiseiulle’s Law, check details the relationship between lumen diameter and resistance is inverse and quadratic, while that of length to resistance selleck kinase inhibitor is proportional and linear. Hence, if a vessel doubles its diameter, it would have

to increase its length 16-fold to maintain the same blood flow resistance. Therefore, widening is a more powerful modulator of resistance and flow than lengthening. The internal milieu of pregnancy, which is characterized by high circulating levels of not only sex steroids but also of growth factors and other endocrine signals, may well stimulate uterine vascular remodeling. Studies of pseudopregnancy, in which mechanical stimulation leads to a pregnancy-like endocrine state in rodents, have shown that significant increases in uterine artery diameter do occur in mice during the first half of pregnancy, even without the presence of true implantation sites [82]. Maximal increases in arterial radius were observed on day 11, and were on the order

of 20–25%. This enlargement is significant but lags behind the 30–35% changes seen at the same time point in pregnant animals. Steroidal influences therefore likely contribute to arterial enlargement, especially during early- to mid-pregnancy. They may also augment the extent of the process through synergistic effects with other factors, such as shear IMP dehydrogenase stress [77, 87] or VEGF [76], although additional research is needed to better define the interactive aspects in the gestational setting. In rats, if implantation is restricted to one uterine horn (rodents usually have two identical horns, making this an ideal experimental model), the majority of the remodeling occurs only in the “pregnant” horn [22], indicating that local rather than systemic factors are paramount. Parenthetically, rodents also maintain normal fecundity by increasing the number of implantation sites from 6 or 7 to 12–14, a number that is similar to that typically present in both horns in a control animal. The stark difference in the extent of remodeling in the implanted vs.