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Fig. 4 | Journal of Intensive Care

Fig. 4

From: Glycocalyx and its involvement in clinical pathophysiologies

Fig. 4

Steady-state fluid exchange simulated for a post-capillary venule, with the fluid-conducting pathways modeled as parallel small pore and large pore populations, under normal and inflamed conditions. a Basal low permeability state: 95 % of the hydraulic conductance is represented by small pores (radius = 4 nm; blue curve) and 5 % is represented by large pores (radius = 22.5 nm; red curve). The black solid curve shows the total fluid exchange (sum of the red and blue lines) at varying values of Pc. The vessel was perfused with Ringer solution containing serum albumin (Πp = 25 cmH2O). Pi was assumed to be constant, and the aquaporin pathway was negligible (≤10 % of total conductance). b Steady-state fluid exchange under increased permeability conditions in the same vessel as that shown in a. The red curve represents the flow through the large pore system after inflammation had increased the number of large pores by tenfold. The small pore population remained unchanged. The dashed lines represent extrapolations of the linear parts of the steady-state summed relations to the pressure axis, where their intersection gives the value of the effective COP opposing fluid filtration (reduced during inflammation). The vertical arrows show the typical microvascular pressures under the basal condition (A) and during mild inflammation (b). The increase in pressure contributed to the dramatic 17-fold increase in the filtration rate (cited from Levick JR, Michel CC. Cardiovasc Res. 2010;87(2):198–210.)

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