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Capillaries ( in US; in UK) are the smallest of a body's blood vessels (and lymph vessels) that make up the microcirculation. Their endothelial linings are only one cell layer thick. These microvessels, measuring around 5 to 10 micrometres (µm) in diameter, connect arterioles and venules, and they help to enable the exchange of water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and many other nutrients and waste substances between the blood and the tissues surrounding them. Lymph capillaries connect with larger lymph vessels to drain lymph collected in the microcirculation. During early embryonic development〔http://www.wormbook.org/chapters/www_embryovariationdevelop/embryovariationdevelop.html〕 new capillaries are formed through vasculogenesis, the process of blood vessel formation that occurs through a ''de novo'' production of endothelial cells which then form vascular tubes. The term angiogenesis denotes the formation of new capillaries from pre-existing blood vessels and already present endothelium which divides. ==Structure== Blood flows from the heart through arteries, which branch and narrow into arterioles, and then branch further into capillaries where nutrients and wastes are exchanged. The capillaries then join and widen to become venules, which in turn widen and converge to become veins, which then return blood back to the heart through the great veins. Capillaries do not function on their own, but instead in a ''capillary bed'', an interweaving network of capillaries supplying organs and tissues. The more metabolically active a cell or environment is, the more capillaries are required to supply nutrients and carry away waste products. Capillary beds can consist of two types of vessels: true capillaries, which branch from arterioles and provide exchange between cells and the blood, and short vessels that directly connect the arterioles and venules at opposite ends of the beds, metarterioles, only found in the mesenteric circulation. Metarterioles are found primarily (or exclusively) in the mesenteric microcirculation and were erroneously Lymphatic capillaries are slightly larger in diameter than blood capillaries, and have closed ends (unlike the loop structure of blood capillaries). This structure permits interstitial fluid to flow into them but not out. Lymph capillaries have a greater internal oncotic pressure than blood capillaries, due to the greater concentration of plasma proteins in the lymph.〔Guyton, Arthur; Hall, John (2006). "Chapter 16: The Microcirculation and the Lymphatic System". In Gruliow, Rebecca. Textbook of Medical Physiology (Book) (11th ed.). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Elsevier Inc. pp. 187–188. ISBN 0-7216-0240-1〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Capillary」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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