ELASTIC PROPERTIES OF BLOOD VESSELS Flashcards
___________ which have only an intimal layer of endothelial cells resting on a basal lamina are the exception.
Capillaries
____________ form a single, continous layer that lines all vascular segments.
Endothelial cells
___________ keep the endothelial cells together in arteries but are less numerous in veins.
Junctional complexes
The glomus bodies in the skin and elsewhere are unusual in that their “endothelial cells” exist in multiple layers of cells called _____________.
Myoepithelioid cells
These ____________ control small arteriovenous shunts or anastomoses.
Glomus bodies
____________ are a rubber-like material that accounts for most of the stretch of vessels at normal pressures as well as the stretch of other tissues.
Elastic fibers
The elastin core consists of a highly insoluble polymer of _________, a protein rich in nonpolar amino acids (i.e glycine, alanine, valine, proline).
Elastin
After being secreted into the extracellular space, the elastin molecules remain in a ______________.
Random-coil configuration
The _____________, which are composed of glycoproteins and have a diameter of ~10 nm, are similar to those found in the extracellular matrix in other tissues.
Microfibrils
In ___________, elastic fibers are arranged as CONCENTRIC, CYLINDRICAL LAMELLAE.
Arteries
A network of elastic fibers is abundant everywhere except in the _________, in the __________ and in the aforementioned ______________.
True capillaries
Venules
Arteriovenous anastomoses
___________ constitute a jacket of far less extensible material than the elastic fibers, like the fabric woven inside the wall of a rubber hose.
Collagen fibers
Collagen can be stretched only _______% under physiological conditions.
3 to 4%
The basic unit of the collagen fibers in blood vessels is composed of ____________ collagen molecules which are two of the fibrillar collagens.
Type I and Type III
After being secreted, these triple-helical molecules assemble into fibrils that may be _________ nm in diameter; these in turn aggregate into collagen fibers that may be several microns in diameter and are visible with a light microscope.
10 to 300 nm
Collagen fibers are presemt throughout the circulation except in the __________.
Capillaries
True or False: Collagen fibers are usually attached to the other components of the vascular wall with some slack, so that they are normally under tension.
False: They are normally not under tension
Are also present in all vascular segments except the capillaries.
Vascular smooth-muscle cells (VSMCs)
In _________, VSMCs are arranged in spirals with pitch varying from nearly longitudinal to nearly transverse-circular.
Elastic arteries
In _____________, they are arranged either in concentric rings or as helices with a low pitch.
Muscular arteries
______________ do not contribute appreciably to the elastic tension of the vascular wall, which is mainly determined by the elastin and collagen fibers.
Relaxed VSMCs
VSMCs exert tension primarily by means of ____________.
Active contraction
Because of the elastic properties of vessels, the pressure-flow relationship of passive vascular beds is __________.
Nonlinear
_________ predicts a linear pressure-flow relationsip.
Poiseuille’s law
However, in reality, the pressure-flow relationship is markedly __________ in an in vivo preparation of a vascular bed.
Nonlinear
The reason is that INCREASE of the driving pressure also INCREASES the transmural pressure, causing the vessel to _________.
Distend
Because radius increases, resistance _____ and flow ______ more than it would in a rigid tube.
Falls
Rise
The ____________ of vessels are the major cause of such nonlinear pressure-flow relationships in vascular beds exhibiting little or no “active tension”.
Elastic properties
As driving pressire and thus transmural pressure increases, vessel radius increases as well, causing __________.
Resistance
Conversely, resistance increases toward _______ when driving pressure falls.
Infinity
In Poiseuille’s case of course, resistance would be ___________ regardless of the driving pressure.
Constant
Contraction of smooth muscle halts blood flow when driving pressure ______ below the critical closing pressure.
Falls
The ____________ occurs because of the combined action of elastic fibers and active tension from VSMCs.
Stoppage of flow
Graded increases in active tension produced for example by ______________ - shift the pressure-flow relationship to the right and decrease the slope which reflects an increase in resitance over the entire pressure range.
Sympathetic stimulation
The criticsl closing pressure also shifts upward with increasing degrees of _____________.
Vasomotor tone
This phenomenon is important in _____________, in which massive constriction occirs in an attempt to raise arterial pressure and critical closing pressures rise to 40 mmHg or more.
Hypotensive shock
__________ and __________ determine the distensibility and compliance of vessels.
Elastic and collagen fibers
Have a low volume capacity but can withstand large transmural pressure.
Arteries
Have a large volume capacity (and are thus able to act as blood reservoirs) but can withstand only small transmural pressure differences.
Veins
The _____________ expresses the elastic properties of blood vessels.
Volume distensibility
Is the change in volume for a macroscopic step change in pressure.
Absolute distensibility
Because the unstretched size varies among vessels, it is preferable to normalize the volume change to the initial, unstretched volume (Vo) and thus to use a _______________.
Normalized distensibility
The most useful index of distensibility is ___________ which is the slope of the tangent to any point along the pressure-volume diagram.
Compliance
The steeper the slope of a pressure-volume diagram, the ________ the compliance.
Greater