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Inside this layer is the tunica media, which is made up of smooth muscle cells, elastic tissue (also called connective tissue proper) and collagen fibres. [3] The innermost layer, which is in direct contact with the flow of blood, is the tunica intima. The elastic tissue allows the artery to bend and fit through places in the body.
Blood vessels function to transport blood to an animal's body tissues. In general, arteries and arterioles transport oxygenated blood from the lungs to the body and its organs, and veins and venules transport deoxygenated blood from the body to the lungs. Blood vessels also circulate blood throughout the circulatory system.
This is normally the thickest tunic in veins and may be thicker than the tunica media in some larger arteries. The outer layers of the tunica externa are not distinct but rather blend with the surrounding connective tissue outside the vessel, helping to hold the vessel in relative position. [3]
This is a list of arteries of the human body. The aorta; The arteries of the head and neck. The common carotid artery. The external carotid artery; The triangles of the neck; The internal carotid artery; The arteries of the brain; The arteries of the upper extremity The subclavian artery; The axilla. The axillary artery; The brachial artery ...
The aorta (/ eɪ ˈ ɔːr t ə / ay-OR-tə; pl.: aortas or aortae) is the main and largest artery in the human body, originating from the left ventricle of the heart, branching upwards immediately after, and extending down to the abdomen, where it splits at the aortic bifurcation into two smaller arteries (the common iliac arteries).
In the largest vessels, the vasa vasorum penetrates the outer (tunica adventitia) layer and middle (tunica media) layer almost to the inner (tunica intima) layer. In smaller vessels it penetrates only the outer layer. In the smallest vessels, the vessels' own circulation nourishes the walls directly and they have no vasa vasorum at all.
The three layers of a blood vessel are an inner layer (the tunica intima), a middle layer (the tunica media), and an outer layer (the tunica externa). In dissection , the inner coat (tunica intima) can be separated from the middle (tunica media) by a little maceration, or it may be stripped off in small pieces; but, because of its friability ...
The muscle fiber cells are arranged in 5 to 7 layers of circular and longitudinal smooth muscle with about 50μ in length and contain well-marked, rod-shaped nuclei, which are often slightly curved. Separating the tunica media from the outer tunica externa in larger arteries is the external elastic membrane (also called the external elastic ...