The Circulatory system

The Circulatory system

• Transports fluids throughout the body

• It consists of the cardiovascular & lymphatic systems.
• CVS = heart & blood vessels
• 3 types of blood vessels: arteries, veins, & capillaries
• Capillaries form a capillary bed, where the interchange of
oxygen, nutrients, waste products, & other substances with
the extracellular fluid occurs.
• Blood from the capillary bed passes into thin-walled
venules, which resemble wide capillaries.

•
 Blood Vessels
• Most vessels of the circulatory system have three coats,
or tunics:
• Tunica intima
– an inner lining consisting of a single layer of extremely
flattened epithelial cells, the endothelium, supported by
delicate connective tissue.
– Capillaries consist only of this tunic, with blood capillaries also
having a supporting basement membrane.
• Tunica media
– a middle layer consisting primarily of smooth muscle.
– is the most variable.
• Tunica adventitia
– an outer connective tissue layer or sheath.
 Arteries
• Are blood vessels that carry blood under relatively high
pressure (compared to the corresponding veins) from the
heart and distribute it to the body

• The blood passes through arteries of decreasing caliber

• Carry oxygenated blood to the tissue

• The pulmonary artery carries deoxygenated blood from the

right ventricle to the lungs.
 Types of Arteries
• 3 types of arteries:
Large elastic arteries (conducting arteries)
– have many elastic layers (sheets of elastic fibers) in their
walls.
– initially receive the cardiac output
– Can expand when the heart contracts (when they receive the
cardiac output), minimizing the pressure change, and
– return to normal size between cardiac contractions, pushing the
blood into the medium arteries downstream.
• Examples:
– the aorta, the arteries that originate from the arch of the aorta
(brachiocephalic, subclavian, and carotids arteries), and the
pulmonary trunk and arteries.
 Types of Arteries…

Medium muscular arteries (distributing arteries)

– have walls that consist chiefly of circularly disposed
smooth muscle fibers.
– Their ability to decrease their diameter (vasoconstrict)
regulates the flow of blood to different parts of the
body as required by circumstance (e.g., activity,
thermoregulation).
– Examples: the brachial or femoral arteries
 Types of Arteries…
Small arteries & arterioles
– have relatively narrow lumina & thick muscular walls.
– The degree of filling of the capillary beds and level of
arterial pressure within the vascular system are regulated
mainly by the degree of tonus (firmness) in the smooth
muscle of the arteriolar walls.
– If the tonus is above normal, hypertension (high blood
pressure) results.
– are usually not named or specifically identified during
dissection, and arterioles can be observed only under
magnification.
 Anastomoses (communications)

• b/n the multiple branches of an artery provide numerous

potential detours for blood flow in case the usual pathway is
obstructed.

• If a main channel is occluded, the smaller alternate channels

can usually increase in size in a relatively short time,
providing a collateral circulation that ensures the blood
supply to structures distal to the blockage.
 Anatomical or true terminal or end arteries

• Arteries that do not anastomose with adjacent arteries

 Occlusion of an end artery interrupts the blood supply to

the structure or segment of an organ it supplies.

• True terminal arteries supply the retina, for e.g., where

occlusion will result in blindness.
 Functional terminal arteries

• Arteries with ineffectual anastomoses

• Supply segments of:
– the brain,
– liver,
– kidneys,
– spleen, &
– intestines
• They may also exist in the heart.
 Veins

• More abundant than arteries

• The walls of veins are thinner than those of their

companion arteries because of the lower BP in the venous
system

• veins carry deoxygenated blood back to the heart

• Pulmonary veins are atypical in that they carry arterial

blood
 Veins…

• There are three sizes of veins:

– Venules are the smallest veins & drain capillary beds

– Small veins are the tributaries of larger veins that unite to

form venous plexuses & are unnamed.

– Medium veins drain venous plexuses & accompany

medium arteries.

– Large veins drain medium veins & empty into the heart,
e.g., vena cava.
 Veins…
• In the limbs, & in some other locations where blood flow is
against gravity, the medium veins have valves & named
according to the artery they accompany.
• Those that accompany deep arteries - accompanying veins
(L. venae comitantes) - surround them in an irregular
branching network.
– serves as a countercurrent heat exchanger, the warm
arterial blood warming the cooler venous blood as it
returns to the heart from a cold extremity
 Veins…
• Systemic veins:

– are more variable than arteries, &

– venous anastomoses, direct or indirect, b/n two veins

occur more often b/n them.

• The outward expansion of the bellies of contracting skeletal

muscles in the limbs, limited by the deep fascia, compresses
the veins, milking the blood superiorly toward the heart;
another (musculovenous) type of venous pump.
 Blood Capillaries
• Are simple endothelial tubes connecting the arterial and
venous sides of the circulation
• Allow the exchange of materials with the interstitial or
extracellular fluid(ECF).
• Are generally arranged in capillary beds, networks that
connect the arterioles and venules.
• The blood enters the capillary beds through arterioles that
control the flow and is drained from them by venules.
 Blood Capillaries

• In some regions, there are direct connections between the

small arterioles & venules proximal to the capillary beds
they supply & drain.

• The sites of such communications -arteriolovenular

anastomoses (AV shunts) -permit blood to pass directly
from the arterial to the venous side of the circulation
without passing through capillaries.
 Blood Capillaries

• AV shunts are numerous in the skin, where they have

an important role in conserving body heat.

• In some situations, blood passes thru two capillary

beds before returning to the heart; a venous system
linking two capillary beds constitutes a portal venous
system.
 Lymphatic System

• Constitutes a sort of overflow system that provides for the:

– drainage of surplus tissue fluid & leaked plasma proteins to the
bloodstream
– removal of debris from cellular decomposition & infection.

• Other functions include:

– absorption & transport of dietary fat (e.g., lacteals receive all lipid
& lipid-soluble vitamins absorbed by the intestine)
– formation of a defense mechanism for the body (e.g.,
lymphocytes).
 Components of the lymphatic system

• The important components of the lymphoid system are:

 Lymphatic plexuses:

– networks of lymphatic capillaries that originate blindly in

the extracellular (intercellular) spaces of most tissues.

 Lymphatic vessels (lymphatics):

– a nearly bodywide network of thin-walled vessels with

abundant lymphatic valves.
 Components of the lymphatic system

 Lymphatic capillaries & vessels:

– occur almost everywhere blood capillaries are found, except,
for example, teeth, bone, bone marrow, & the entire central
nervous system (excess tissue fluid here drains into the
cerebrospinal fluid).
 Lymph (L. lympha, clear water):
– the tissue fluid that enters lymph capillaries & is conveyed by
lymphatic vessels. Usually clear, watery, & slightly yellow,
lymph is similar in composition to blood plasma.
 Components of the lymphatic system
 Lymph nodes,
– small masses of lymphatic tissue located along the course of lymphatic
vessels through which lymph is filtered on its way to the venous system.

 Lymphocytes, circulating cells of the immune system that react

against foreign materials.
 Lymphoid tissue, sites that produce lymphocytes, such as that
aggregated in the walls of:
– the digestive tract (alimentary canal);
– spleen, thymus, & lymph nodes; &
– as myeloid tissue in red bone marrow.
 Superficial lymphatic vessels

• More numerous than veins in the subcutaneous tissue

• Anastomosing freely, converge toward and follow the venous

drainage.

• Eventually drain into deep lymphatic vessels that accompany the

arteries and also receive the drainage of internal organs.

• Large lymphatic vessels enter large collecting vessels, called

lymphatic trunks, which unite to form either the right lymphatic
duct or the thoracic duct
• The right lymphatic duct
– drains lymph from the body’s right upper quadrant
• right side of head, neck, and thorax plus the right upper limb.

– At the root of the neck, it enters the junction of the right

internal jugular and right sub-clavian veins
• the right venous angle.

• The thoracic duct

– drains lymph from the remainder of the body.
 The lymphatic trunks

– draining the lower half of the body merge in the abdomen

– sometimes forming a dilated collecting sac, the cisterna

chyli.

– From this sac, or from the merger of the trunks, the thoracic
duct ascends into and then through the thorax to enter the left
venous angle
• junction of left internal jugular and left sub clavian veins.