caa a22 4500 465740235 CHVBK 20180323111807.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170327e19900301xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/BF02368425 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/BF02368425 McNamee James Department of Physiology, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, 29208, Columbia, SC aut Fractal character of pulmonary microvascular permeability [Elektronische Daten] [James McNamee] The pulmonary microvasculature offers a heterogeneous barrier to the motion of large solutes as they pass between blood and lymph. While this barrier has been approximated by a few discrete pathways or by statistical ensembles of many pathways, these descriptions only partly capture the structural and functional properties of the pulmonary microcirculation. The concept that this barrier may be a fractal object is explored. Endothelial cleft geometry displays scaling in junctional path length and self-similarity in its spatial organization. It is shown that a fractal cleft produces heterogeneous spaces capable of transporting water and macromolecules. Cleft location, size, and depth are characterized, in part, by a fractal dimension of approximately 0.8. The consequences for transport through a fractal barrier are then determined. Predicted sieving of macromolecules by a fractal barrier is found to be consistent with lung microvascular transport data. Nonlinear transport phenomena are one consequence of a barrier having a fractional dimension. Pergamon Press plc, 1990 Mathematical model nationallicence Macromolecules nationallicence Dimension nationallicence Sieving nationallicence Annals of Biomedical Engineering Kluwer Academic Publishers 18/2(1990-03-01), 123-133 0090-6964 18:2<123 1990 18 10439 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02368425 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02368425 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- McNamee James Department of Physiology, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, 29208, Columbia, SC aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Annals of Biomedical Engineering Kluwer Academic Publishers 18/2(1990-03-01), 123-133 0090-6964 18:2<123 1990 18 10439 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer