Cardiorespiratory Exercise Physiology Laboratory
Directors: Timothy I Musch, Ph.D. and David C Poole, Ph.D.
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FocusOxygen transport in health and disease |
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Lab Overview
Our lab has utilized a wide range of exercise tests and measurements to determine the efficacy of oxygen delivery-to-utilization matching in skeletal muscle. These techniques include: gas analysis (expired and blood), intravital microscopy, phosphorescence quenching, and fluorescent microspheres. Together with molecular biology, data modelling, curve fitting and advanced statistical processing these techniques help us understand the mechanisms that contribute to peak exercise performance, as well as how disease negatively impacts exercise capacity. Our current projects focus on mitigating the burden of disease (heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, and cancer) by targeting the cardiovascular system to improve oxygen delivery. These include:
- Novel pharmaceutical intervention downstream in the nitric oxide pathway to improve tumor oxygenation in breast cancer and skeletal muscle blood flow and exercise capacity in heart failure
- Investigating the cardiovascular underpinnings of skeletal and respiratory muscle dysfunction in pulmonary hypertension, and implementing pharmacological and exercise interventions to restore or improve muscle blood flow and exercise capacity in this disease.
Lab Discoveries
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Recumbent elephants lower arterial blood O2 pressures but maintain O2 saturation allowing safe surgical anesthesia |
Race horses bleed into their lungs (exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage, EIPH). Nasal trips lower EIPH and preserve lung function |
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Healthy Heart
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Heart Failure
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| Nitric oxide promotes increased blood flow to exercising muscles and dysfunction in this pathway helps explain decreased exercise function in aging and heart failure | Heart failure afflicts over 6 million Americans and decreases the number of capillaries that support blood flow. Major therapeutic initiatives are underway to reverse this effect (see below) | |
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"A great symbiosis in translational research" |  |
Recent Publications:
- Schulze KM, Weber RE, Horn AG, Colburn TD, Ade CJ, Much TI, Poole DC. Effects of Pulmonary Hypertension on Microcirculatory Hemodynamics in Rat Skeletal Muscle. Microvascular Research.
- Horn AG, Kunkel ON, Schulze KM, Baumfalk DR, Weber RE, Poole DC, & Behnke BJ. Supplemental oxygen administration during mechanical ventilation reduces diaphragm blood flow and oxygen delivery. Journal of Applied Physiology. 2022.
- Weber RE, Schulze KM, Colburn TD, Horn AG, Hageman KS, Ade CJ, Hall SE, Sandner P, Musch TI, Poole DC. Capillary Hemodynamics and Contracting Skeletal Muscle Oxygen Pressures in Male Rats with Heart Failure: Impact of Soluble Guanylyl Cyclase Activator Nitric Oxide. 2021.
- Horn AG, Schulze KM, Weber RE, Barstow TJ, Poole DC, Behnke BJ. Post-occlusive reactive hyperemia and skeletal muscle capillary hemodynamics. Microvascular Research.
- Schulze KM, Weber RE, Colburn TD, Horn AG, Ade CJ, Poole DC, Musch TI. The effects of pulmonary hypertension on skeletal muscle oxygen pressures in contracting rat spinotrapezius muscle. Experimental Physiology.
- Ade CJ, Turpin V, Parr SK, Hammond, ST, White Z, Weber RE, Schulze KM, Colburn TD, Poole DC. Does Wearing a Facemask Decrease Arterial Blood Oxygenation and Impair Exercise Tolerance? Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology. 2021.
- Colburn TD, Weber RE, Hageman KS, Caldwell JT, Schulze KM, Ade CJ, Behnke BJ, Poole DC, Musch TI. Vascular ATP‐sensitive K+ channels support maximal aerobic capacity and critical speed via convective and diffusive O2 The Journal of Physiology. 2020.
Lab Personnel
| Tim Musch, Ph.D | Principle Investigator |
| David Poole, Ph.D.,D.Sc. | Principle Investigator |
| Kiana Schulze, M.S. | Doctoral Student, Predoctoral Research Fellow |
| Ramona Weber, M.S. | Doctoral Student |
| Nathan Kenney | Concurrent B.S./M.S. Student |
| Sue Hageman, M.S. | Research Assistant |
Lab Contact Information:Timothy I. Musch, Ph.D. or |
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