1. What physiological factors influence capillary blood flow?
2. When person is standing quietly, the pressure in the capillaries of the feet can reach as high as 100 mm Hg. Why do the thin-walled capillaries not rupture when exposed to such a high pressure?
3. If mean capillary hydrostatic pressure is 20 mm Hg, interstitial pressure - 4 mm Hg, plasma oncotic pressure - 25 mm Hg, and interstitial oncotic pressure - 2 mm Hg, is there absorption or filtration in this capillary? Why? In the passage of solute across the capillary wall, how do filtration and absorption compare with diffusion?
4. By what mechanisms do lipid-soluble and lipid-insoluble solutes pass from the capillary lumen to the interstitial space?
5. How is albumin that has escaped from the capillaries returned back to the systemic circulation?
6. What is meant by autoregulation of blood flow and what is the mechanism involved?
7. How can the endothelium affect the contractile state of the vascular smooth muscle?
8. How is blood pressure regulated by the carotid baroreceptors?