Blood Vessels
✦The vessels making up the blood system are of three main types.
✦Vessels carrying blood away from the heart are known as arteries.
✦Vessels carrying blood towards the heart are veins.
✦Linking arteries and veins taking blood close to almost every cell in the body
are tiny vessels called capillaries.
©Mr. Suman Neerukonda
Arteries
✫The function of arteries is to transport blood swiftly and
at high pressure to the tissues.
✫The structure of the wall of an artery enables it to
perform this function efficiently.
✫Arteries and veins both have walls made up of THREE
layers:
1.An inner endothelium (lining tissue) called the tunica
intima made up of a layer of flat cells (squamous
epithelium) fitting together like jigsaw pieces - this layer
is very smooth minimizing friction with the moving blood.
2. A middle layer called the tunica media (‘middle
coat’) containing smooth muscle collagen and elastic
fibers.
3. An outer layer called the tunica externa (‘outer
coat’) containing elastic fibers and collagen fibers
❊The distinctive characteristics of an artery wall are its strength and
elasticity.
❊Blood leaving the heart is at a very high pressure.
❊Blood pressure in the human aorta may be around 120 mm Hg, or 16
kPa.
❊ To withstand such pressure artery walls must be extremely
strong.
❊This is achieved by the thickness and composition of the artery
wall.
✪Arteries have the thickest walls
of any blood vessel.
✪The aorta the largest artery has an overall
diameter of 2.5 cm close to the heart and a
wall thickness of about 2 mm.
✪The tunica media - which is by far the
thickest part of the wall contains large
amounts of elastic fibers.
✪These allow the wall to stretch as pulses
of blood surge through at high pressure.
✪Arteries further away from the heart have
fewer elastic fibers in the tunica media but
have more muscle fibers.
✶The ELASTICITY of artery walls is important in allowing them
to ‘give’ which reduces the likelihood that they will burst.
✶The artery walls stretch as the high-pressure blood surges into them
and then recoil inwards as the pressure drops.
✶Therefore as blood at high pressure enters an artery the artery
becomes wider reducing the pressure a little as blood at lower
pressure enters an artery - the artery wall recoils inwards giving the
blood a small ‘push’ and raising the pressure a little.
TS of artery and vein, LP (x20) - in sectioned material (as here), veins are more likely to appear squashed, whereas arteries
are circular in section
Arterioles
An arteriole is a small diameter blood vessel in
the microcirculation that extends and branches
out from an artery and leads to capillaries.
The walls of arterioles are similar to those of
arteries but they have a greater proportion of
smooth muscle.
This muscle can contract narrowing the diameter
of the arteriole and so reducing blood flow.
This helps to control the volume of blood
flowing into a tissue at different times.
For example during exercise arterioles that
supply blood to muscles in your legs would be
dilated as their walls relax while those carrying
blood to the gut wall would be constricted.
Blood pressure drops significantly as blood
flows through the arteries.
As blood enters an arteriole it may have a pressure
of 85 mm Hg (11.3 kPa) but as it leaves
and flows into a capillary the pressure will have
dropped to about 35 mm Hg (4.7 kPa).
Capillaries
©Mr. Suman Neerukonda
✭The arterioles themselves continue to
branch eventually forming the tiniest of
all blood vessels capillaries.
✭The function of capillaries is to take
blood as close as possible to all cells
allowing rapid transfer of substances
between cells and blood.
✭Capillaries form a network throughout
every tissue in the body except the
cornea and cartilage.
✭ Such networks are sometimes called
capillary beds.
The small size of capillaries is obviously of great
importance in allowing them to bring blood as
close as possible to each group of cells in
the body.
A human capillary is approximately 7 μm in
diameter about the same size as a red blood cell .
Moreover the walls of capillaries are extremely
thin made up of a single layer of endothelial cells.
As red blood cells carrying oxygen squeeze
through a capillary they are brought to within as
little as 1 μm of the cells outside the capillary
which need the oxygen.
In most capillaries there are tiny gaps between
the individual cells that form the endothelium.
These gaps are important in allowing some
components of the blood to seep through
into the spaces between the cells in all the tissues
of the body.
These components form tissue fluid.
By the time blood reaches the capillaries it has already lost a great
deal of the pressure originally supplied to it by the contraction of
the ventricles.
As blood enters a capillary from an arteriole it may have a pressure
of around 35 mm Hg or 4.7 kPa.
By the time it reaches the far end of the capillary the pressure will
have dropped to around 10 mm Hg or 1.3 kPa.
Veins
✫The capillaries gradually
join with one another
forming larger vessels
called venules.
✫These join to form veins.
✫The function of veins is to
return blood to the heart.
❉By the time blood enters a vein its pressure has dropped to a very
low value.
❉In humans a typical value for venous blood pressure is about 5 mm
Hg or less.
❉This very low pressure means that there is no need for veins to have
thick walls.
❉They have the same three layers as arteries but the tunica media is
much thinner and has far fewer elastic fibers and muscle fibers.
The low blood pressure in veins creates a problem:
HOW CAN THIS BLOOD BE RETURNED TO THE HEART?
✾The problem is perhaps most obvious if you consider how blood can
return from your legs.
✾Unaided the blood in your leg veins would sink and accumulate in
your feet.
✾However many of the veins run within or very close to several leg
muscles.
✾Whenever you tense these muscles they squeeze inwards on the
veins in your legs temporarily raising the pressure within them.
✬This squeezing in itself would not help to
push the blood back towards the heart.
✬Blood would just squidge up and down as
you walked.
✬To keep the blood flowing in the right
direction veins contain half-moon valves or
semilunar valves formed from their
endothelium.
✬These valves allow blood to move towards
the heart but not away from it.
✬Thus, when you contract your leg muscles
the blood in the veins is squeezed up
through these valves but cannot pass down
through them.
Blood flow in veins: Skeletal
muscle contraction squeezes and constricts
veins.
Flaps of tissue within the veins act as
oneway valves that keep blood moving only
toward the heart.
If you sit or stand too long, the lack of
muscular activity may cause your feet to
swell as blood pools in your veins.
Blood samples are normally taken from veins rather than from arteries because of
the lower pressure in them
Veins are closer to the
skin surface than arteries
and blood flows more
gently and smoothly in
them.
They are therefore used
when a blood sample is
being taken or to donate
blood for transfusions.
Blood pressure in different regions of the human circulatory system.
Only arteries and veins have walls that
consist of two layers of tissue surrounding
the endothelium.
