are blood vessels smooth muscle
Pulmonary blood vessels within the lung are unique as they vasodilate to high oxygen tension and vasoconstrict when it falls. Bronchiole, smooth muscle that line the airways of the lung, respond to high carbon dioxide producing vasodilation and vasoconstrict when carbon dioxide is low. Blood Vessels Grown From Muscle Cells. Feb. 2, 2011 -- Scientists report that they have successfully grown and tested collagen-based tubes made from human donor tissue that can be used as blood vessel-like grafts in surgical procedures like coronary artery bypass and for creating vascular access points for patients who need kidney dialysis. Diagram showing the location of vascular smooth muscle cells. Vascular smooth muscle cells, isolated from human aorta, growing and forming a monolayer in cell culture. Vascular smooth muscle refers to the particular type of smooth muscle found within, and composing the majority of the wall of blood vessels. Most smooth muscle is of the single-unit variety, that is, either the whole muscle contracts or the whole muscle relaxes, but there is multiunit smooth muscle in the trachea, the large elastic arteries, and the iris of the eye. Smooth muscle is an involuntary non-striated muscle. It is divided into two subgroups; the single-unit (unitary) and multiunit smooth muscle. Within single-unit cells, the whole bundle or sheet contracts as a syncytium. Other researchers have previously reported the ability to develop blood vessels from a patient’s own cells. That process was time consuming, however, requiring six to nine months for harvested cells to multiply and grow a sheet of tissue that could be rolled into a tube and implanted in the body. Thus the main function of vascular smooth muscle tone is to regulate the caliber of the blood vessels in the body. Excessive vasoconstriction leads to high blood pressure, while excessive vasodilation as in shock leads to low blood pressure. The muscle cells then secreted proteins, primarily collagen, which formed a ring of biosynthetic tissue around the gradually dissolving scaffold, says study researcher Shannon L. M. Dahl, PhD, senior director of scientific operations for Humacyte. In the new procedure, reported in the Feb. 2 issue of Science Translational Medicine, researchers took smooth muscle cells from cadaver donors and seeded them onto mesh tubes made from the same strong, flexible material used to make dissolvable stitches. Vascular smooth muscle contracts or relaxes to change both the volume of blood vessels and the local blood pressure, a mechanism that is responsible for the redistribution of the blood within the body to areas where it is needed (i.e. areas with temporarily enhanced oxygen consumption).
Yes, vascular smooth muscle contracts or relaxes to change both the volume of blood vessels and the local blood pressure.