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Blood Flow

Blood Flow

Blood is pumped by the heart into the aorta, the largest artery in the body, and then into increasingly smaller arteries, arterioles, and capillaries. The velocity of blood flow decreases with increased cross-sectional blood vessel area. As blood returns to the heart through venules and veins, its velocity increases. The movement of blood is encouraged by smooth muscle in the vessel walls, the movement of skeletal muscle surrounding the vessels, and one-way valves that prevent backflow.

Vascular Spasm

Vascular Spasm

The vascular phase, also known as vasospasm, is the initial stage of hemostasis, crucial for preventing excessive bleeding when a blood vessel is injured. After a vessel is cut, nerves in the damaged area trigger pain and other sensory impulses. Simultaneously, the smooth muscles in the vessel wall contract, resulting in a vascular spasm. This contraction reduces the vessel's diameter at the injury site, slowing or stopping blood loss through the vessel wall. Vascular spasms typically last for...

Structure of Blood Vessels

Structure of Blood Vessels

Blood is circulated throughout the human body through a network of blood vessels called the circulatory system. This system includes arteries that transport blood from the heart to various body parts. These arterial pathways divide into smaller vessels until they reach the arterioles, which further split into capillaries. It is within these minuscule capillaries that the exchange of nutrients and waste products takes place. After this exchange, the blood is collected by venules, which fuse to...

Autoregulation of Blood Flow

Autoregulation of Blood Flow

Autoregulation mechanisms are characterized by their inherent capacity for self-regulation without necessitating specific nervous stimulation or endocrine control. These mechanisms facilitate the adjustment of blood flow and, therefore, perfusion specific to each tissue region. This self-regulation encompasses chemical signals and myogenic controls.
Chemical Signaling in Autoregulation
Chemical signaling operates at the precapillary sphincter level, inciting either contraction or relaxation.

Development of Blood Vessels

Development of Blood Vessels

The development of the vascular system in a fetus is a complex and intricate process that begins as early as 15 to 16 days post-conception. This process starts outside the embryo, specifically in the mesoderm of the yolk sac, chorion, and connecting stalk. Approximately two days later, the formation of blood vessels occurs within the embryo itself.
The initial formation of this system is facilitated by the small amount of yolk present in the ovum and yolk sac. Blood vessels originate from...

Anatomy of Blood Vessels

Anatomy of Blood Vessels

The vascular system, an integral part of the circulatory system, comprises various blood vessels that play crucial roles in maintaining the body's homeostasis. These blood vessels form a complex and efficient circulatory network. The three primary categories of blood vessels are the arteries, veins, and capillaries.
Arteries
Arteries circulate oxygenated blood from the heart, except the pulmonary artery, which transports deoxygenated blood to the lungs. Large arteries, such as the aorta, have...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 13, 2026

Microfluidic Chips Controlled with Elastomeric Microvalve Arrays

Microfluidic Chips Controlled with Elastomeric Microvalve Arrays

Published on: October 1, 2007

Microfluidic chain reaction of structurally programmed capillary flow events.

Mohamed Yafia^1,2, Oriol Ymbern^1,2, Ayokunle O Olanrewaju^1,2,3

¹Biomedical Engineering Department, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

|May 18, 2022

Summary

We developed a microfluidic chain reaction (MCR) for autonomous, programmable liquid handling on a chip. This innovation enables complex assays and diagnostics without external equipment, paving the way for versatile lab-on-a-chip applications.

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Area of Science:

Biotechnology
Microfluidics
Chemical Engineering

Background:

Chain reactions are fundamental to chemical and biological processes but macroscopic applications are limited.
Microfluidic lab-on-a-chip systems often rely on external peripherals for automation.
Existing capillary microfluidics lack advanced programmability for complex liquid handling.

Purpose of the Study:

To introduce the microfluidic chain reaction (MCR) for autonomous, programmable capillary flow control.
To demonstrate MCR's capability for complex liquid handling algorithms on a single chip.
To showcase MCR's potential for untethered, in-situ programmed lab-on-a-chip devices.

Main Methods:

3D printing of monolithic chips integrating MCRs.
Utilizing paper pump-generated free energy for autonomous operation.
Developing MCRs for conditional, structurally programmed propagation of capillary flow events.

Main Results:

Automated sequential release of 300 aliquots across interconnected chips.
Successful implementation of a SARS-CoV-2 antibody detection protocol.
Demonstrated a thrombin generation assay with continuous subsampling and parallel operations.

Conclusions:

MCR technology offers untethered and unencumbered autonomous liquid handling.
MCRs encode programs structurally in situ, enabling frugal and versatile lab-on-a-chip devices.
This approach has wide-ranging applications in liquid handling and point-of-care diagnostics.