Blood vessels Flashcards
What are the 2 main parts of the circulatory system?
Heart → function = pumping the blood
Vasuclar system → afferent (arteries) and efferent (veins) blood vessels
What are lymphatic vessels?
How do they start?
What are some of their important features?
Lymphatics are an anastomotic network of vessels that start as blind capillaries which converge into larger lymphatic vessels and drain into large veins
Features:
- Removed and recycle tissue fluid (lymph)
- Begin as open-ended lymph “capillaries”
- Very thin endothelium, with no occluding junctions
- No basement membrane, or partial
- Small/large lymphatic vessels can have valves (folds of endothelium)
- Large lymphatics have smooth muscle cells in their walls
What is the lymph composed of?
Lymph is formed by plasma enriched with immunoglobulins and lymphocytes produced by the lymphatic organs
What are, in order, the different types of arteries and veins
Heart
Large veins // Large (elastic) arteries
Medium/small size veins (muscular veins) // Muscular arteries
Venules // Arterioles
Post capillary venules // metarterioles
Capillary network
*each level runs in parallel → can be seen in same plan of section side by side
What are the different parts of the muscular arteries and its characteristics?
Intimar:
- Endothelium (gap and tight junctions)
- Sub-endothelial layer (thin)
- IELM (internal Elastic Limiting Membrane)
Media:
- 4 - 10 layer of smoothe muscle cells + collagen type III (reticular fibers) + proteoglycans
Adventitia:
- Dense irregular CT sometimes with vasa vasorum
What are the different parts of the medium/small size veins and their characteristics?
Intima:
- Endothelium (gap and tight junctions)
- Sub-endothelial layer
- NO IELM
Media:
- Incomplete layer ~2 of smooth muscle cells (CT in between the cells)
Adventitia:
Dense irregular CT with oy without vasa vasorum
*collapsed shape
What stain does the ILEM have affinity with?
Acidophilic → interacts with eosin → bright pink
What are the different parts of the large elastic arteries and their characteristics?
Intima:
- Well developed
- Endothelium → endocytic vesicles, gap and tight junctions
- Sub-endotheliual layer → thin
- IELM → fenestrated, is the 1st layer of elastic membrane before the media
Media:
- Alternance of smooth muscle cell layers and elastic membrane layers
- Rich in collagent type III and chondroitin SO4 proteoglycans
Adventitia:
- Dense irregular connective tissue rich in elastic fibers and collagen type I
- Contains vasa vasorum
What are the different parts of the large veins and their characteristics?
Intima:
- Endothelium
- CT and diffuse small muscle cells
Media:
- 5 layer or less of smooth muscle cells (no elastic membrane in alternance)
- CT and collagen within the layers
Adventitia:
- Often thickest layer
- Dense irregular CT + vasa vasorum
What are the different parts of arterioles and their characteristics?
Intima:
- Endothelium (gap + tight junctions)
- Subendothelial (thin-absent)
- no IELM, small elastic fibers
Media:
- 1 - 2 layers of smooth muscle cells
Adventitia:
- Thin without vasa vasorum
- Composed of connective tissue fibers/fibrils + fibrocytes
*Diamter = 0.5mm or less
*regular round shape
What are the different parts of venules and their characteristics?
Intima:
- Endothelium (with gap and tight junctions)
- No IELM, no Sub-endothelium
Incomplete media
- Pericytes may be present
Thin Aventitia
*Collapsed appearance, irregular shape
0.2mm to 20 um
What are metarterioles and postcapillary venules?
A capillary network is found between metarterioles (branch point of capillaries) and postcapillary venules (merge point of capillaries)
Why do some venules appear white and some red? Some collapsed and some not?
It depends on the method of preparation of the tissue slice
Red → Fixation by immersion bc RBCs are still there (more round?)
White → Fixation by perfusion which removed the blood (more collapsed?)
What is the precappillary sphincter?
It is the site at which the arteriole banches into capillaries → smooth muscle cells form pre-capillar ysphincter to regulate blood flow in the capillary network
*where the metarterial is located
What are AV anastomosis?
Where are direct connections between arterioles and venules (pre → post capillaries)
When there is a leak in the capillaries, the metarteriole can contract to restrain circulation through the capillaries and blood can go direclty to the venules (capillary shunt) by AV anastomosis