Please cite this paper as: Billaud M, Lohman AW, Straub AC, Parpaite T, Johnstone SR, Isakson BE. Characterization of the thoracodorsal artery: morphology and reactivity. Microcirculation 19: 360–372, 2012.

Objectives:  In this paper, we describe the histological and contractile properties of the thoracodorsal artery (TDA), which indirectly feeds the spinotrapezius muscle.

Methods:  We used immunolabelling techniques to histologically characterize the TDA while the contractile properties were assessed using pressure arteriography.

Results:  Our results demonstrate that the TDA is composed of approximately one to two layers of smooth muscle cells, is highly innervated with adrenergic nerves, and develops spontaneous tone at intraluminal pressures above 80 mmHg. The reactivity of the TDA in response to various contractile agonists such as phenylephrine, noradrenaline, angiotensin II, serotonin, endothelin 1, and ATP, as well as vasodilators, shows that the TDA exhibits a remarkably comparable reactivity to what has been observed in mesenteric arteries. We further studied the different components of the TDA response to acetylcholine, and found that the TDA was sensitive to TRAM 34, a blocker of the intermediate conductance potassium channel, which is highly suggestive of an endothelium‐dependent hyperpolarization.

Conclusions:  We conclude that the TDA exhibits comparable characteristics to other current vascular models, with the additional advantage of being easily manipulated for molecular and ex vivo vasoreactivity studies.