Blood Vessels and Vasculature - MCAT Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems

Blood pressure tends to be the greatest near the heart, and decreases as blood flows to the capillaries. The pressure is greatest at the aorta and gradually decreases as blood moves from the aorta to large arteries, smaller arteries, and capillaries. The pressure is lowest in the venous system, which is why blood can pool in the veins and act as a "blood reservoir". Veins contain valves that allow them to pump blood back to the heart.

Areteries need to be thick and able to withstand strong, sudden increases in pressure because they recieve blood more directly from the heart. The aorta in particular is very thick and able to expand with a large increase in blood volume. "Compliance" is the word that decsribes a vessel's ability to do this. Veins are thin and collapsable, and contain one-way valves to prevent blood from flowing backwards as it moves against gravity towards the heart.

Arteries always carry blood away from the heart. Most carry oxygenated blood, but the pulmonary artery carries deoxygenated blood from the right ventricle to the lungs so that it can reoxygenated and sent back to the heart.

Some—but not all—capillary beds experience transudation of fluid from the vessels. Recall that capillaries can be discontinuous (spaces between adjacent cells), completely closed with tight junctions between cells (as in the brain), or fenestrated (pores through their cytoplasmic membranes (as in the kidney). Closure of arteriolar pre-capillary sphincters can reduce or eliminate the blood flow to a region of tissue. This is why your fingers blanche in very cold weather. Although the arterioles are the major resistance vessels in a circuit, the capillary beds have some contribution. Transudation of fluids, but not large molecules such as protein, from inside to outside a capillary indeed raises the osmotic pressure of the remaining blood; this is Starling's Law, not to be confused with the Frank-Starling law of the heart.

Choice V is a true statement regarding the hypothalmo-hypophyseal portal system.

Increased blood vessel wall permeability can lead to edema. Edema is the result of abnormal fluid homeostasis; proper fluid homeostasis is achieved by balancing hydrostatic pressure and oncotic pressure in blood vessels. If hydrostatic pressure is greater than oncotic pressure in a blood vessel, fluid will filter out of the blood vessel and into the interstitium. The Starling Equation describes fluid movement across capillary membranes in relation to hydrostatic pressure and oncotic pressure within the blood vessel.

The aorta is where the blood pressure is greatest, in order to pump blood to the entire body. Capillaries have relatively low blood pressure, but have greater pressure than veins due to their small diameter. Veins carry blood that has traveled a greater distance from the heart; the flow is slower and the pressure is lower. In order to bring the blood back to the heart, the veins must contain valves which prevent the back flow of blood. Arteries, on the other hand, do not need valves because of their great pressure that keeps continuous flow in one direction.

With morphological changes, cells are most likely to be caught in regions with the smallest cross sectional area. Though capiallary beds have the highest TOTAL cross sectional area of any vessel bed in the body, individual capillaries are smaller than any other type of blood vessel. The result is that misshapen red blood cells, such as those in sickle cell anemia, can easily get stuck in capillaries.

Arterioles serve an important sphincter function at the entry point to capillary beds. During exercise, capillary beds that are not in need of perfusion at a given moment may enlist the use of arterioles to constrict and divert blood where it is more needed.

Capillary beds have the greatest TOTAL cross-sectional area, but are composed of individual vessels that are smaller than any other type in the body. Because velocity is dependent on overall cross sectional area, capillary blood velocity is the lowest.

It is important to remember that these nutrients go through the liver before entering the general circulation. Amino acids and carbohydrates are absorbed through the intestine's epithelial cells into the hepatic portal circulation, then to the liver, through the inferior vena cava, and finally into the heart. From the heart, these nutrients are pumped from the left ventricle to the rest of the body's tissues.

In the general circulation, the highest blood pressure is found in the aorta and the lowest blood pressure is in the vena cava. As this suggests, blood pressure drops in the general circulation as it goes from the aorta to the rest of the body. Pressure drops form the aorta to the arteries, the arteries to the arterioles, and the arterioles to the capillaries. Flow rate reaches a minimum in the capillaries before blood begins to pool in the venules. Pressure continues to drop from the venules to the veins to the vena cavae.

The hydrostatic pressure becomes much lower as blood travels through capillary beds. This is because the fluid pressue lessens as fluid leaves the inside of the capillaries and is forced into the interstitial fluid. The oncotic presssure remains relatively constant, since proteins are large and do not readily move across vessel walls. As fluids exit the capillary, the concentration of proteins within the vessel increases.

Of the available answer choices, we would expect blood pressure to be the highest in the arterioles because they are closest to the aorta and major arteries, from where blood is directly pumped. Of the choices blood pressure is greatest in the arterioles and lowest in the veins.

Note that overall blood pressure is highest in the aorta, however the question specifies that we are only looking a a select portion of answers.

Veins and venules hold approximately 65% of blood in the body at rest. Because of their large luminal diameters, veins are capable to storing much of blood in the human body.

Arteries carry blood away from the heart and have thick, elastic layers that allow for build up of high pressures due to high volume flow. Capillaries are the smallest vessels in the body, and act to facilitate exchange of gas, nutrients, and waste products between blood and tissues.

There is greater hydrostatic pressure pushing fluid out of the capillary at the arteriolar end, and greater osmotic pressure pulling fluid back in at the venule end. Despite this balance, it is not exact, and there is a net loss of fluid to the extravascular compartment over the length of the capillary. This extra fluid is captured by lymphatics and recycled via lymph vessels.

Once blood enters the left ventricle, the left ventricle contracts and pushes blood out of the heart into the aorta. The contraction of the left ventricle pumps blood into the aorta at a fast velocity. Blood velocity becomes slower as it reaches the capillaries and then speeds up again in the veins. Veins must use valves to pump blood against gravity, and therefore does not move blood as quickly as the aorta. The aorta is the best answer.

The arterioles feed into the capillaries, and control which tissues and parts of the body get more oxygenated blood. During cold weather conditions, the arterioles are activated in vasoconstriction of oxygenated blood to the capillary beds in the skin.

Capillary beds can be broken down into three types: continuous, fenestrated, and sinusoidal.

Continuous capillaries have no pores, fenestrated have small pores, and sinusoidal have large, leaky pores. Hypodermic describes the region just beneath the skin; while this is the location of many capillaries, it is not a classification.

The pulmonary veins have the greatest concentration of oxygenation, because they bring oxygenated blood from the lungs to the left atrium. They are the only veins that carry oxygenated blood.

Blood in the pulmonary arteries is deoxygenated and travels from the right ventricle to the lungs for gas exchange. Blood in the vena cavae is returning to the heart after systemic circulation, and is thus deoxygenated. Blood in the capillaries is a mixture of oxygenated and deoxygenated, but is always less oxygenated than the blood of the pulmonary veins.

The circulatory system follows both the systemic and pulmonary circuits. Deoxygenated blood is returned from the systemic circuit through the vena cavae into the right atrium. It then goes into the right ventricle after passing through the tricuspid valve. From the right ventricle it enters the pulmonary circuit through the pulmonary artery, which carries deoxygenated blood from the right ventricle to the lungs, where it gets oxygenated. From the lungs it goes through the pulmonary veins into the left atrium. From the left atrium it goes into the left ventricle through the mitral valve, and is returned to the systemic circuit through the aorta.

Deoxygenated blood would be found in mostly in systemic veins, including the vena cavae, pulmonary arteries, and the right side of the heart. Oxygenated blood would be found in systemic arteries, such as the femoral artery, pulmonary veins, and the left side of the heart.