FIG. 1.

Pressure–diameter relations of three representative vessels. A lymphatic vessel (green circles), a venule (blue triangles), and an arteriole (red squares) of comparable size were isolated from the mesentery of a single rat. Vessel diameter was normalized with respect to the maximum diameter (lymphatic 267 μm, venule 278 μm, and arteriole 135 μm). The lymphatic vessel operates at the lowest pressure range (0–5 cmH₂O), approximately one-third of the venule pressure range, and exhibits the sharpest transition from low to higher pressures, clearly seen in the inset (zoomed in to pressure values of 0–20 cmH₂O). These results are similar to Zhang et al.²⁸ (A color version of this figure is available in the online article at www.liebertpub.com/lrb.)