The epidermis of the skin and the lens and cornea of the eye completely lack a capillary network. About 5 percent of the total blood volume is in the systemic capillaries at any given time. Another 10 percent is in the lungs. Smooth muscle cells in the arterioles where they branch to form capillaries regulate blood flow from the arterioles into the capillaries. Veins carry blood toward the heart. After blood passes through the capillaries, it enters the smallest veins, called venules.
From the venules, it flows into progressively larger and larger veins until it reaches the heart. In the pulmonary circuit, the pulmonary veins transport blood from the lungs to the left atrium of the heart. This blood has a high oxygen content because it has just been oxygenated in the lungs. Systemic veins transport blood from the body tissue to the right atrium of the heart.
This blood has a reduced oxygen content because the oxygen has been used for metabolic activities in the tissue cells. The walls of veins have the same three layers as the arteries. Although all the layers are present, there is less smooth muscle and connective tissue.
The tunica intima consists of a layer of endothelial cells lining the lumen of the vessel, as well as a subendothelial layer made up of mostly loose connective tissue.
Often, the internal elastic lamina separates the tunica intima from the tunica media. The tunica media is composed chiefly of circumferentially arranged smooth muscle cells. Again, the external elastic lamina often separates the tunica media from the tunica adventitia. Finally, the tunica adventitia is primarily composed of loose connective tissue made up of fibroblasts and associated collagen fibers.
Tunica intima Tunica media Tunica adventitia 1. Endothelial cell lining. Internal elastic lamina. Smooth muscle cells, collagen fibers, and ground substance. Elastin in the form of fenestrated elastic lamellae esp elastic arteries. External elastic lamina 1. Mostly collagenous fibers.
Vasa vasorum. Slide 66 Elastic artery aorta. In the aorta, the tunica media constitutes the greater part of the vessel wall. It is made up of multiple elastic lamellae alternating with thin layers of circularly oriented smooth muscle. The boundary between the tunica intima and media is not readily defined, and the internal elastic lamina is merely the innermost of the many elastic lamellae within the wall.
The tunica adventitia essentially lacks elastic lamellae, and is mainly loose connective tissue and blood vessels vasa vasorum. Slide 67 Elastic artery carotid and large vein jugular.
Contrast the artery with the vein. Observe the intima, media, and adventitia. In the artery, the elastic lamellae are readily observed. The aorta compared to the carotid artery has a thicker intima and more elastic lamellae in the media. Note that elastic and collagen fibers are easy to visualize in this slide.
Examine these slides to further reinforce your ability to recognize elastic arteries and their features. Note the relationship between age and histology. Supplemental Slide Aorta, human new born. Supplemental Slide Aorta, human 7 years. Supplemental Slide Aorta, human 22 years. In muscular arteries, smooth muscle becomes the predominant constituent of the tunica media.
Internal and external elastic laminae are prominent. The tunica intima is thinner than the intima of elastic arteries. Slide 81 Spermatic cord. This slide has several muscular arteries mixed in with atypical veins of the pampiniform plexus.
These veins contain a greater amount of smooth muscle than most veins of this size. Also note the outer longitudinal arrangement of smooth muscle in these veins. Observe the characteristic three layers of the arteries present. Their thick tunica media allows muscular arteries to play a leading role in vasoconstriction.
In contrast, their decreased quantity of elastic fibers limits their ability to expand. Fortunately, because the blood pressure has eased by the time it reaches these more distant vessels, elasticity has become less important. Rather, there is a gradual transition as the vascular tree repeatedly branches.
In turn, muscular arteries branch to distribute blood to the vast network of arterioles. For this reason, a muscular artery is also known as a distributing artery.
An arteriole is a very small artery that leads to a capillary. Arterioles have the same three tunics as the larger vessels, but the thickness of each is greatly diminished.
The critical endothelial lining of the tunica intima is intact. The tunica media is restricted to one or two smooth muscle cell layers in thickness. The tunica externa remains but is very thin see Figure 3. With a lumen averaging 30 micrometers or less in diameter, arterioles are critical in slowing down—or resisting—blood flow and, thus, causing a substantial drop in blood pressure. Because of this, you may see them referred to as resistance vessels.
The muscle fibers in arterioles are normally slightly contracted, causing arterioles to maintain a consistent muscle tone—in this case referred to as vascular tone—in a similar manner to the muscular tone of skeletal muscle. In reality, all blood vessels exhibit vascular tone due to the partial contraction of smooth muscle. The importance of the arterioles is that they will be the primary site of both resistance and regulation of blood pressure.
The precise diameter of the lumen of an arteriole at any given moment is determined by neural and chemical controls, and vasoconstriction and vasodilation in the arterioles are the primary mechanisms for distribution of blood flow.
A capillary is a microscopic channel that supplies blood to the tissues themselves, a process called perfusion. Exchange of gases and other substances occurs in the capillaries between the blood and the surrounding cells and their tissue fluid interstitial fluid. The diameter of a capillary lumen ranges from 5—10 micrometers; the smallest are just barely wide enough for an erythrocyte to squeeze through.
Flow through capillaries is often described as microcirculation. The wall of a capillary consists of the endothelial layer surrounded by a basement membrane with occasional smooth muscle fibers. There is some variation in wall structure: In a large capillary, several endothelial cells bordering each other may line the lumen; in a small capillary, there may be only a single cell layer that wraps around to contact itself.
For capillaries to function, their walls must be leaky, allowing substances to pass through. The most common type of capillary, the continuous capillary , is found in almost all vascularized tissues.
Continuous capillaries are characterized by a complete endothelial lining with tight junctions between endothelial cells. Although a tight junction is usually impermeable and only allows for the passage of water and ions, they are often incomplete in capillaries, leaving intercellular clefts that allow for exchange of water and other very small molecules between the blood plasma and the interstitial fluid.
Substances that can pass between cells include metabolic products, such as glucose, water, and small hydrophobic molecules like gases and hormones, as well as various leukocytes. Continuous capillaries not associated with the brain are rich in transport vesicles, contributing to either endocytosis or exocytosis. Those in the brain are part of the blood-brain barrier.
Here, there are tight junctions and no intercellular clefts, plus a thick basement membrane and astrocyte extensions called end feet; these structures combine to prevent the movement of nearly all substances.
Figure 4. The three major types of capillaries: continuous, fenestrated, and sinusoid. A fenestrated capillary is one that has pores or fenestrations in addition to tight junctions in the endothelial lining. These make the capillary permeable to larger molecules. The number of fenestrations and their degree of permeability vary, however, according to their location.
Fenestrated capillaries are common in the small intestine, which is the primary site of nutrient absorption, as well as in the kidneys, which filter the blood. They are also found in the choroid plexus of the brain and many endocrine structures, including the hypothalamus, pituitary, pineal, and thyroid glands.
A sinusoid capillary or sinusoid is the least common type of capillary. Sinusoid capillaries are flattened, and they have extensive intercellular gaps and incomplete basement membranes, in addition to intercellular clefts and fenestrations.
This gives them an appearance not unlike Swiss cheese. These very large openings allow for the passage of the largest molecules, including plasma proteins and even cells. Blood flow through sinusoids is very slow, allowing more time for exchange of gases, nutrients, and wastes. Sinusoids are found in the liver and spleen, bone marrow, lymph nodes where they carry lymph, not blood , and many endocrine glands including the pituitary and adrenal glands. Without these specialized capillaries, these organs would not be able to provide their myriad of functions.
For example, when bone marrow forms new blood cells, the cells must enter the blood supply and can only do so through the large openings of a sinusoid capillary; they cannot pass through the small openings of continuous or fenestrated capillaries.
The liver also requires extensive specialized sinusoid capillaries in order to process the materials brought to it by the hepatic portal vein from both the digestive tract and spleen, and to release plasma proteins into circulation. A metarteriole is a type of vessel that has structural characteristics of both an arteriole and a capillary. Slightly larger than the typical capillary, the smooth muscle of the tunica media of the metarteriole is not continuous but forms rings of smooth muscle sphincters prior to the entrance to the capillaries.
Each metarteriole arises from a terminal arteriole and branches to supply blood to a capillary bed that may consist of 10— capillaries. The precapillary sphincters , circular smooth muscle cells that surround the capillary at its origin with the metarteriole, tightly regulate the flow of blood from a metarteriole to the capillaries it supplies.
Their function is critical: If all of the capillary beds in the body were to open simultaneously, they would collectively hold every drop of blood in the body and there would be none in the arteries, arterioles, venules, veins, or the heart itself.
Normally, the precapillary sphincters are closed. When the surrounding tissues need oxygen and have excess waste products, the precapillary sphincters open, allowing blood to flow through and exchange to occur before closing once more see Figure 5.
If all of the precapillary sphincters in a capillary bed are closed, blood will flow from the metarteriole directly into a thoroughfare channel and then into the venous circulation, bypassing the capillary bed entirely.
This creates what is known as a vascular shunt. In addition, an arteriovenous anastomosis may bypass the capillary bed and lead directly to the venous system. Although you might expect blood flow through a capillary bed to be smooth, in reality, it moves with an irregular, pulsating flow.
This pattern is called vasomotion and is regulated by chemical signals that are triggered in response to changes in internal conditions, such as oxygen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen ion, and lactic acid levels. For example, during strenuous exercise when oxygen levels decrease and carbon dioxide, hydrogen ion, and lactic acid levels all increase, the capillary beds in skeletal muscle are open, as they would be in the digestive system when nutrients are present in the digestive tract.
During sleep or rest periods, vessels in both areas are largely closed; they open only occasionally to allow oxygen and nutrient supplies to travel to the tissues to maintain basic life processes. Figure 5. In a capillary bed, arterioles give rise to metarterioles. Precapillary sphincters located at the junction of a metarteriole with a capillary regulate blood flow. A thoroughfare channel connects the metarteriole to a venule. An arteriovenous anastomosis, which directly connects the arteriole with the venule, is shown at the bottom.
A venule is an extremely small vein, generally 8— micrometers in diameter. Postcapillary venules join multiple capillaries exiting from a capillary bed. Multiple venules join to form veins. The walls of venules consist of endothelium, a thin middle layer with a few muscle cells and elastic fibers, plus an outer layer of connective tissue fibers that constitute a very thin tunica externa.
Venules as well as capillaries are the primary sites of emigration or diapedesis, in which the white blood cells adhere to the endothelial lining of the vessels and then squeeze through adjacent cells to enter the tissue fluid. A vein is a blood vessel that conducts blood toward the heart. Compared to arteries, veins are thin-walled vessels with large and irregular lumens see Figure 6. Figure 6. Many veins have valves to prevent back flow of blood, whereas venules do not. In terms of scale, the diameter of a venule is measured in micrometers compared to millimeters for veins.
Because they are low-pressure vessels, larger veins are commonly equipped with valves that promote the unidirectional flow of blood toward the heart and prevent backflow toward the capillaries caused by the inherent low blood pressure in veins as well as the pull of gravity.
Table 2 compares the features of arteries and veins. Higher in pulmonary veins Valves Not present Present most commonly in limbs and in veins inferior to the heart Disorders of the Cardiovascular System: Edema and Varicose Veins Despite the presence of valves and the contributions of other anatomical and physiological adaptations we will cover shortly, over the course of a day, some blood will inevitably pool, especially in the lower limbs, due to the pull of gravity.
Any blood that accumulates in a vein will increase the pressure within it, which can then be reflected back into the smaller veins, venules, and eventually even the capillaries. Increased pressure will promote the flow of fluids out of the capillaries and into the interstitial fluid.
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