THE GRADIENT OF VASCULAR PERMEABILITY

The permeability of the capillaries in the skeletal muscles of mammals increases progressively along their course and is greatest where they pass into the least venules. The gradient of permeability is so largely independent of functional states as to give grounds for the view that it is determined by inherent local differences. Through the gradient opportunity is equalized along the capillary. In the liver lobule this object is accomplished by an artifice of arrangement whereby the blood flow past the cells is increased with their distance from the source of supply. In the urinary bladder the interlacing of capillaries, their progressive widening, and a consequent gradual slowing of the blood flow act to achieve the same end. Here a gradient of permeability has not been demonstrable. Where cells of different sorts are served by a slender capillary, their differing requirements may render unnecessary any provision to equalize their opportunities; but where shortcomings in local maintenance will reduce the efficiency of an entire fabric, as the muscle fibre, and where cells of like character live competitively along the same channel, as in the liver, some arrangement must exist to ensure an even distribution of the services rendered by the blood. In situations of the kind last mentioned the immediate environment of the individual cell, the "milieu interne" of Bernard, is not only kept as constant as possible but it must be the same, by and large, for all of the cells. The task of serving voluntary muscle is not strictly limited to the capillaries. The intrafascicular arterioles and venules act so effectively to sustain the tissue about them that where they run no capillaries are supplied.