Histology 7a

Gregory Rodocker
NSU
Class Taken: Spring 2009
The Circulatory System
 Blood vascular components
 Heart
 Arteries
 Capillaries
 veins
 lymphatic vascular components
 later
Vessels
 Macrovasculature (>0.1 mm)
 Large arterioles
 Muscular and elastic arteries
 Muscular veins
 Microvasculature
 Arterioles
 Capillaries
 Post-capillary venules
Capillaries
 A single layer of endothelial cells and
the basal lamina: (no smooth muscles)
 7-9 µm in diameter and 50 µm in
length
 Walls consist of 1-3 cells with a
continuous basal lamina of endothelial
origin
Types of Capillaries
 Continuous, complete or somatic
 Fenestrated, or visceral
 Fenestrated in Kidney
 Discontinuous sinusoidal
 Listed from tightest to leakiest
Fenestrated Capillary in
Kidney
Continuous Capillaries
 Absence of fenestrae
 Basal lamina continuous
 Muscle tissue, CT, exocrine glands
and NT
Fenestrated Capillaries
 Large fenestrae covered by diaphragm
 Thinner than the trilaminar appearing unit
membrane
 Basal lamina continuous
 Kidney, intestines and endocrine
glands
Fenestrated Caps. in Kidney
 Fenestrated w/o diaphragm
 Basal lamina continuous and only
barrier for filtration
 Kidney glomeruli
Discontinuous Sinusoidal
Capillaries (sinusoidal so think
liver)
 Wall and basal lamina discontinuous
 Tortuous in their path and greatly
enlarged (30-40 µm in diameter)
 Liver and hematopoietic tissue such as
bone marrow and spleen
1- typical path
2- arteriovenous anastomosis
3- arterial portal system
4- venous portal system
Larger vessels
 Tunica intima
 Endothelium
 Internal elastic lamina (arteries)
 Wrinkled postmortem
 Tunica media
 Smooth muscle
 External elastic lamina (larger arteries)
 Tunica externa
 CT which is continuous with surrounding
tissues
Larger vessels
 Vasa vasorum
 Vessels supplying blood to walls of larger
blood vessels. Walls too thick to obtain
nutrition from large vessel lumen.
 “vessels of the vessels”
Muscular vs. elastic artery
Muscular vs. elastic arteries
 Media of muscular with up to 40 layers
of smooth muscle cells
 Elastic arteries include the aorta and
its large branches
 Elastic arteries have a large lumen
and thin walls vs. muscular arteries
which have small lumens and thick
walls
 Elastic vessels recoil with beat of the
heart while muscular arteries control
Veins
 Small to medium sized veins (1-9 mm
in diameter)
 Thin intima, thin media and well
developed adventitia
 Large veins have an obvious intima,
thin media and a prominent adventitia
 Contain valves to prevent blood back flow
Muscular artery vs. comparable vein