Capillaries Research Paper

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To enumerate the main function of capillaries, there are three different types of exchanges that can occur with capillaries: diffusion, transcytosis, and bulk flow. Substances, like oxygen, carbon dioxide, glucose, and hormones enter and leave capillaries by simple diffusion, important for solute exchange between blood and interstitial fluid. Oxygen and nutrients normally are present in higher concentrations in blood, so they diffuse down their concentration gradients into interstitial fluid and then into body cells. Carbon dioxide and other dates released by body cells are present in higher concentrations in interstitial fluid, so they diffuse into blood. Water-soluble substances (glucose, amino acids, etc.) pass across capillary walls through intercellular clefts or fenestrations. Lipid-soluble…show more content…
Transcytosis, substances in blood plasma become enclosed within pinocytic vesicles that enter endothelial cells by endocytosis, then move across the cell and exit on the other side (exocytosis). This method of transport is used mainly by large, lipid-insoluble moves that cannot cross capillary walls, like hormones, (insulin), antibodies, and proteins. Bulk flow is a passive process in which large numbers of molecules in a fluid move together in the same direction; this mechanism occurs from an area of higher pressure to an area of lower pressure and continues as long as a pressure difference exists. Bulk flow is important for regulation of the relative volumes of blood and interstitial fluid. Pressure-driven movement of fluid and solutes from blood capillaries into interstitial fluid is referred to as filtration; whereas, pressure-driven movement from interstitial fluid into blood capillaries is called reabsorption. Two pressures promote filtration: blood hydrostatic pressure (BHP), the pressure generated by the pumping action of the heart, and interstitial fluid osmotic pressure (IFOP), pulls fluid out of capillaries into interstitial

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