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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2020 Apr 1.
Published in final edited form as: Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2019 Feb 28;40(4):253–266. doi: 10.1016/j.tips.2019.02.004

Figure 1. Vascular components of the artery.

Figure 1.

Blood vessels are usually composed of three layers: the tunica intima, tunica media, and tunica adventitia. The intima consists of an endothelial cells monolayer lining the vessel lumen. Often, the internal elastic lamina separates the tunica intima from the tunica media. The tunica media is mainly composed of vascular smooth muscle cells. The external elastic lamina separates the tunica media from the tunica adventitia. The tunica adventitia is primarily composed of connective tissues made up of fibroblasts, macrophages, and associated collagen-rich matrix proteins.