|
Sponsored Links
Capillaries are the smallest of a body's blood vessels, measuring 5-10 µm in diameter, which connect arterioles and venules, and enable the interchange of water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and many other nutrient and waste chemical substances between blood and surrounding tissues.[1] Blood flows from the heart to arteries, which branch and narrow into arterioles, and then branch further still into capillaries. After the tissue has been perfused, capillaries join and widen to become venules and then widen more to become veins, which return blood to the heart. The "capillary bed" is the network of capillaries supplying an organ. The more metabolically active the cells, the more capillaries it will require to supply nutrients and carry away waste products. Precapillary sphincters are rings of smooth muscles at the origin of true capillaries that regulate blood flow into true capillaries and thus control blood flow through a tissue.
|
Capillary Subcategories
Capillary Articles
|
| 
