title: Circulation in the lungs and microcirculation in the alveoli.
abstract: Human lungs weighing ca 600 g permit the passage of 5-6l of blood per minute. The blood capacity of the human lungs is about 0.5 l. Consequently, each 0.5 l of blood is during 5 s. The questions arise of how such a large mass of blood passes through such a small mass of lungs and what the reasons are for such a high rate of blood oxygenation. Since the structure of lungs in mammals is almost the same, we tried to solve these issues studying the rats, in which 20-22 ml of blood pass through the lungs of 1.5-2.0 g mass. A great blood flow appeared to be associated with a large diameter of the lung arterioles and a high rate of the blood flow in them. The high rate of oxygenation is accounted for by a special structure of alveoli and special conditions of the blood flow, which create ideal conditions for oxygen diffusion.
authors: I.P. Pavlov Institute of Physiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Sankt-Petersburg, Russia. kpivanov@nc2490.spb.edu
authors: K P
authors: KP
authors: Ivanov
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D008168:Lung / Q000098:blood supply*; D008297:Male; D008833:Microcirculation / Q000502:physiology*; D011650:Pulmonary Alveoli / Q000098:blood supply*; D011659:Pulmonary Gas Exchange / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar