Pulmonary microcirculation: tubules rather than sheet and post.

We examined latex casts of the pulmonary microcirculation with the scanning electron microscope (SEM). Mature rats were anesthetized and ventilated; the pulmonary vasculature was washed out with lactated Ringer solution and then filled with a mixture of Geon latexes. The airways were filled with glutaraldehyde with resulting transmural vascular pressures of 10 cmH2O. After critical-point drying and corrosive removal of the lung tissue, SEM studies of the vascular replicas revealed two distinct patterns of pulmonary microcirculation: 1) sparse, long, tubular capillaries that comprise the thin subpleural layer and appear as "filler" in the peribronchial spaces; and 2) alveolar microcirculation that is composed of tightly matted, intersecting tubules, shorter but of the same diameter as type 1, in spherical array in two layers. The alveolar capillaries at low magnification appear superficially as sheets; however, the detailed morphology is not consistent with the sheet-and-post model. We conclude that the basic component of the pulmonary microcirculation is tubular and not different from other capillary beds except in density.