Capillaries are very tiny blood vessels — so small that a single red blood cell can barely fit through them.
They help to connect your arteries and veins in addition to facilitating the exchange of certain elements between your blood and tissues.
This is why tissues that are very active, such as your muscles, liver, and kidneys, have an abundance of capillaries. Less metabolically active tissues, such as certain types of connective tissue, don’t have as many.
Read on to learn more about the function of capillaries and the conditions that can affect them.
A capillary is a small blood vessel from 5 to 10 micrometres (μm) in diameter, and having a wall one endothelial cell thick. They are the smallest blood vessels in the body: they convey blood between the arterioles and venules. These microvessels are the site of exchange of many substances with the interstitial fluid surrounding them. Substances which cross capillaries include water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, urea,[2] glucose, uric acid, lactic acid and creatinine. Lymph capillaries connect with larger lymph vessels to drain lymphatic fluid collected in the microcirculation.
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Answer:
Capillaries are very tiny blood vessels — so small that a single red blood cell can barely fit through them.
They help to connect your arteries and veins in addition to facilitating the exchange of certain elements between your blood and tissues.
This is why tissues that are very active, such as your muscles, liver, and kidneys, have an abundance of capillaries. Less metabolically active tissues, such as certain types of connective tissue, don’t have as many.
Read on to learn more about the function of capillaries and the conditions that can affect them.
How will you describe capillaries?
A capillary is a small blood vessel from 5 to 10 micrometres (μm) in diameter, and having a wall one endothelial cell thick. They are the smallest blood vessels in the body: they convey blood between the arterioles and venules. These microvessels are the site of exchange of many substances with the interstitial fluid surrounding them. Substances which cross capillaries include water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, urea,[2] glucose, uric acid, lactic acid and creatinine. Lymph capillaries connect with larger lymph vessels to drain lymphatic fluid collected in the microcirculation.