Number of capillaries

Value 1.2e+9 unitless
Organism dog
Reference Optimality principles in biology, Rosen, Plenum press 1967, p.55 bottom paragraph
Primary Source Cf. D. Cohn, op. cit., N. Rashevsky, Mathematical Biophysics, Dover, New York, 1960, Vol. 11, Chap. XXVII.
Comments P.55 bottom paragraph: "The total number of capillaries, which according to the model are the vessels arising from the final bifurcation, is just half this number, or 0.5×10^9. Data cited by Rashevsky [primary source] puts the number of capillaries in the dog, as obtained from empirical measurement, at 1.2×10^9, which is already an excellent agreement. The agreement becomes even better when it is realized that it will be difficult to distinguish empirically between the true capillaries (i.e. the vessels arising from the final bifurcation) from vessels arising from, say, the twenty-ninth or twenty-eighth bifurcation." There are allometirc relationships that show the scaling with body mass see: Scaling Laws for Capillary Vessels of Mammals at Rest and in Exercise, Thomas H. Dawson, Proceedings: Biological Sciences, Vol. 270, No. 1516 (Apr. 7, 2003), pp. 755-763 PMID 12713751
Entered by Ron Milo - Admin
ID 100796