Capillary Exchange and Localised Control of Circulation Flashcards
What does capillary exchange refer to?
the exchange of materials from capillary blood vessels into the surrounding tissues. The processes that facilitate capillary exchange are principally by diffusion, bulk transport and transcytosis
Why are capillary vessels and capillary beds ideal for the process of exchange?
- 8 um in diameter
- Thin walls – facilitate diffusion
- Large intercellular clefts
- Fenestrations (pores)
- Blood flow through capillaries is slow (low blood pressure)
Give a brief overview of what is absorbed into the body cells in capillary exchange and what is reabsorbed into the blood?
- Water, oxygen, amino acids, glucose, ions etc. absorbed into the body cells
- Water, CO2, water molecules, ions ect. reabsorbed into the blood
What are the cellular mechanisms for filtration and reabsorption in the capillaries?
- Filtration pores e.g. albumin
- Transcytosis e.g. fatty acids, albumin, insulin etc
- Diffusion: O2, CO2, steroids
- Intercellular clefts in capillary walls (bulk flow): glucose, ions, water
- Active transport
What is the capillary hydrostatic pressure?
‘blood pressure’, adds a force to the wall of capillaries and tends towards ‘pushing; water and solutes out of capillaries into the interstitial fluid
What is the blood colloid osmotic pressure (BCOP)?
osmotic forces arising from the interstitial fluid that oppose the CHP
What is the net filtration pressure (the overall drive) determined by?
both hydrostatic and osmotic pressure values
What is the equation to work out the net filtration pressure?
Net CHO - Net BCOP
Capillary blood pressure declines from the arterial end to the venous end. What consequences does this have?
This has functional consequences related to the rates of filtration as blood passes along the length of a capillary
What is the net hydrostatic pressure?
- The Net hydrostatic pressure contains the capillary hydrostatic pressure CHP (ranging from 35mmHg (arterial end) to 18mmHg (venous end))
- CHP is counteracted by a hydrostatic pressure generated by the interstitial fluid. Has a very low value and is somewhat negligible (usually valued as 0)
- net hydrostatic pressure is the difference between the capillary hydrostatic pressure and the interstitial fluid’s hydrostatic pressure
- Effectively the net hydrostatic pressure is the capillary hydrostatic pressure as the interstitial fluid pressure is negligible
What is the net osmotic pressure?
- Net osmotic pressure = Blood colloid osmotic pressure (BCOP) – Interstitial Fluid Colloid Osmotic Pressure (ICOP)
- BCOP = 25 mmHg
- ICOP – interstitial fluid has few proteins in suspension therefore this is low and negligible
- So Net Osmotic pressure becomes equivalent to the blood colloid osmotic pressure
How do you work out the net filtration pressure?
- Net filtration Pressure (NFP) = Net hydrostatic pressure (35 to 18 mmHg) – Net Colloid Osmotic Pressure (about 25 mmHg)
- Net filtration pressure = Net CHP – Net BCOP
Give features of blood pressure in the capillary bed?
- Blood flow in capillaries is extremely slow due to low bp
* Declining blood pressure through capillary bed
What happens at the arterial end of the capillary bed?
- the hydrostatic pressure will exceed the blood colloid osmotic pressure difference
- NFP = 35 mmHg – 25 mmHg = +10 mmHg
- CHP > BCOP
- Fluid forced out of the capillary
- Filtration
What happens at the venous end of the capillary bed?
- the BCOP will exceed the hydrostatic pressure
- NFP = 18 mmHg – 25 mmHg = -7 mm Hg
- BCOP > CHP
- Fluid moves into capillary
- Net reabsorption