45.6k views
3 votes
Which blood vessels have large lumens and thin walls, allowing them to accommodate large volumes and making them capacitance vessels?

1) Arteries
2) Veins
3) Capillaries
4) Lymphatic vessels

1 Answer

2 votes

Final answer:

Veins are the blood vessels with large lumens and thin walls, which classify them as capacitance vessels suited to accommodate large blood volumes at low pressure.

Step-by-step explanation:

The blood vessels that have large lumens and thin walls, which allow them to accommodate large volumes of blood, thus making them capacitance vessels, are veins. Veins are designed to conduct blood toward the heart and have the ability to distend (expand) to store a high volume of blood at low pressure. The structure of their walls and the large lumens enable veins to act as blood reservoirs, storing a significant portion of the body's blood volume at any given time. In contrast, arteries have smaller lumens and thicker walls to handle the high pressure of blood pumped directly from the heart, while capillaries consist of a single layer of epithelial cells ideal for the exchange of substances between the blood and cells of surrounding tissues.

User Shmuel
by
7.6k points