Lymphatic pump function curves in awake sheep.

We determined the relationship between flow rate and inflow pressure for intestinal lymphatic vessels in six sheep. First we anesthetized the sheep and cannulated both ends of a 6- to 10-cm-long segment of intestinal lymphatic. We allowed the sheep to recover from the anesthesia for 2-24 h. To determine the flow rate-inflow pressure relationship, we recorded the inflow pressure and infused Ringer solution into the lymphatic at rates from 34 to 510 microliters/min. The flow rate-pressure relationship was not linear and it had two regions. For flow rates less than approximately 150 microliters/min, inflow pressure was greater than outflow pressure. Thus the lymphatic pumped fluid against a pressure gradient. For flow rates > 150 microliters/min, inflow pressure was greater than outflow pressure, and we attributed most of the flow to the favorable inflow-outflow pressure gradient (passive flow). When we used verapamil to inhibit lymphatic pumping, we found no flow for inflow pressure less than outflow pressure, and flow increased linearly for inflow pressure greater than outflow pressure. Our data for actively pumping lymphatic vessels are consistent with the flow vs. pressure relationships derived from mathematical models of the lymphatic pump. Furthermore, our data with verapamil confirm that active lymphatic pumping was responsible for the nonlinear flow vs. pressure relationship for the lymphatic vessels.