Week 1 + 2 - intro to CVS and histology Flashcards
How does diffusion of substances within the blood take place?
Between the blood and the tissues at the capillaries
- Some molecules are lipophilic and can diffuse directly through the lipid bilayer (e.g. CO2, O2)
- Other molecules are hydrophilic and diffuse though small pores in the capillaries (e.g. glucose, lactate)
- All molecules will move down their concentration gradient
What does the rate of diffusion depend on?
- Area: the area available for exchange; usually very large between capillaries and tissues; depends on capillary density
- Diffusion resistance: small molecules diffuse through pores more easily than large molecules
- Concentration gradient: the greater the concentration gradient, the greater the rate of diffusion; must be maintained for exchange to continue; depends on rate of use by tissues; the lower the blood flow, the lower the capillary concentration
What does diffusion resistance depend on?
- Nature of the molecule (e.g. lipophilic/hydrophilic)
- Nature of the barrier (e.g. pore size and number of pores)
- Path length (depends on capillary density)
What is ‘perfusion rate’?
The rate of blood flow
What is the normal cardiac output for an average adult male at minimum and maximum blood flow?
- Brain: 0.75 l/min min and max (metabolic needs are constant, extremely intolerant of flow interruption)
- Heart: 0.3 l/min min and 1.2 l/min max (increases during exercise)
- Kidney: 1.2 l/min min and max (requires a constant high blood flow to maintain its function)
- Gut: 1.4 l/min min and 2.4 l/min max (digestion of a meal generates a substantial increase in flow; can be decreased during exercise)
- Skin: 0.2 l/min min and 2.5 l/min max (not metabolically very active, flow can increase for thermoregulation)
- Rest of body: 0.2 l/min
So in total: 5.0 l/min minimum and 24.5 l/min maximum
What are the major components of the circulation?
- Pump = the heart
- Distribution system = vessels and blood
- Exchange mechanism = capillaries (via diffusion)
- Flow control = arterioles and pre-capillary sphincters
- Capacitance = veins
What is capacitance?
The ability to cope with changes in the cardiac output
- A store of blood that can be called upon to cope with temporary imbalances between the amount of blood returning to the heart and the amount that it is required to pump out
- Veins have thin walls which can easily distend or collapse, enabling them to act as a variable reservoir for blood
Why is flow control required?
The output of the pump must be distributed appropriately - - By restricting flow to those parts of the body which are easy to perfuse
- This drives blood to those parts which are not so easy to get blood to
- Uses resistance vessels
- Arterioles have lots of smooth muscle in their walls, which can contract
What is the distribution of blood in the CVS?
- Veins: 67%
- Heart and lungs: 17%
- Arteries and arterioles: 11%
- Capillaries: 5%
How does blood travel around the body? (vessels)
- From the heart
- Through large arteries
- Medium (muscular/distributing) arteries
- Arterioles
- Metarterioles
- Capillaries
- Post-capillary venules
- Venules
- Medium veins
- Large veins
- Then back to the heart
What are arteries?
Vessels that carry blood away from the heart to the capillary beds
- Different arteries contain varying amounts of elastic fibres and smooth muscle fibres in their walls
- Named elastic (conducting) or muscular (distributing) arteries
What is the difference between elastic and muscular arteries?
E: more elastic fibres than smooth muscle fibres in their walls, expand slightly with each heartbeat
M: more smooth muscle fibres than elastic fibres in their walls, branch into arterioles
What do arterioles do?
- Regulate the amount of blood reaching an organ/tissue
- Regulate blood pressure
What controls the diameter of the muscular arteries and arterioles?
The autonomic nervous system
What are metarterioles?
Small branches of the arterioles
- They carry blood into the capillaries
What layers are found in the walls of elastic arteries?
Tunica intima:
- Next to the lumen
- Contains the endothelium, a subendothelial layer and internal, discontinuous elastic lamina
Intermediate tunica media:
- Thicker in arteries
- 40-70 fenestrated elastic lamellae
- Thin external elastic lamina may be present
- Smooth muscle cells and collagen between the lamellae
- – The smooth muscle cells produce the elastin, collagen and matrix
Tunica adventitia
- Outer layer
- Thin layer of fibroelastic connective tissue containing vasa vasorum (vessels of vessels), lymphatic vessels and nerve fibres
Describe the walls of muscular arteries
Same as elastic arteries
- Except the tunica media has 40 layers of smooth muscle cells (rather than 40-70 fenestrated elastic lamellae) which are connectedly gap junctions for coordinated contraction
- The external elastic lamina is also more prominent
How does vasoconstriction occur?
- Stimulated by sympathetic nerve fibres
- Noradrenaline is released at nerve endings
- It diffuses through fenestrations in the external elastic lamina into the external tunica media
- It can depolarise some of the superficial smooth muscle cells
- Depoarisation is propagated to all cells of the tunica media via gap junctions
What is an end artery?
A terminal artery supplying all or most of the blood to a body part without significant collateral circulation
- Undergo progressive branching without the development of channels connecting with other arteries
- If occluded, there is insufficient blood supply to the dependent tissue
- E.g. coronary artery, renal artery, splenic artery
Describe the arteriole walls
- Have only 1 to 3 layers of smooth muscle in their tunica media
- The thin internal elastic lamina is present in larger arterioles only
- In small arterioles, the tunica media is composed of a single smooth muscle cell that completely encircles the endothelial cells
- The external elastic lamina is absent
- The tunica adventitia is negligible
Describe metarteriole walls
- Differ from arterioles in that the smooth muscle layer is not continuous
- The individual muscle cells are spaced apart and each encircles the endothelium of a capillary arising from the metarteriole (this is a precapillary sphincter)
What do lymphatic capillaries do?
Drain away excess extracellular fluid, returning it to the blood at the junctions of the internal jugular and subclavian veins
What are some characteristics of capillaries?
- Present by far the largest surface area for agas and nutrient exchange
- During passage through the capillaries, blood velocity is at its lowest (allows time for gas and nutrient exchange with surrounding tissues)
- 7-10 um in diameter
- Less than 1 nm long
- Made of a single layer of endothelium and its basement membrane
- Passing RBCs fill virtually the entire capillary lumen, minimising the diffusion path to adjacent tissues
What are the 3 types of capillaries?
Continous:
- Most common type
- Located in nervous, muscle and connective tissues, exocrine glands and the lungs
- Cells joined by tight junctions
- Pericytes form a branching network on the outer surface of the endothelium
- Continuous endothelial layer
Fenestrated:
- Seen in parts of gut, endocrine glands and renal glomerulus
- Interruptions exist across thin parts of the endothelium (bridged by a thin diaphragm)
- 4 possible routes of transport across the endothelial wall
Sinusoidal:
- Larger diameter
- Slower blood flow
- Seen in spleen, liver and bone marrow
- Gaps exist in the walls allowing whole cells to move between blood and tissue
What are the 4 routes of transport across the endothelial wall of a fenestrated capillary?
- Direct diffusion
- Diffusion through intercellular cleft
- Diffusion through fenestration
- Pinocytosis
What are pericytes?
Cells that are capable of dividing into muscle cells or fibroblasts, during angiogenesis, tumour growth and wound healing
Describe postcapillary venules
- Wall = similar to that of capillaries (endothelial lining with associated pericytes
- Receive blood from capillaries
- Have a diameter of 10-30 um
- Even more permeable than capillaries
- Their pressure is lower than that of capillaries or the surrounding tissue, so fluid tends to drain into them
Describe venules
- Can have a diameter of up to 1mm
- Smooth muscles begin to be associated with the endothelium when the diameter increases to more than 50um
- Endothelium is associated with pericytes or thin smooth muscle cells to form a very thin wall
- Valves can press together in venules to restrict retrograde transport of blood
Describe veins
- Have a larger diameter than any accompanying artery
- Has a thinner wall that has more connective tissue and fewer elastic and muscle fibres
- Small and medium sized veins have well developed adventitia and thin tunica intima + tunica media
- Large veins have diameters > 10mm, thicker tunica intima, no prominent tunica media and a well-developed tunica adventitia
What are venue comitantes?
Deep, paired veins
- In certain anatomical positions they accompany 1 of the smaller arteries on each side of the artery
- 3 vessels are wrapped together in 1 sheath
- The pulsing of the artery promotes venous return within the adjacent, parallel, paired veins
Where does blood flow fastest?
Where the total cross-sectional area is least
Where does the heart lie?
In the middle mediastinum
What is the mediastinum?
The central compartment of the thoracic cavity
- Contains all the thoracic viscera and structures except the lungs
- Covered on each side by mediastinal pleura
- Highly mobile region because it consists of hollow visceral structures, united only by loose connective tissue
- The major structures in the mediastinum are also surrounded by blood and lymphatic vessels, lymph nodes, nerves and fat
- Divided into superior and inferior parts
- The inferior mediastinum is further subdivided by the pericardium into anterior, middle and posterior parts
- The pericardium and its contents constitute the middle mediastinum