Small artery - plastic section (40x
objective lens)
This plastic section shows a small artery from the esophagus, cut in cross
section. The simple squamous epithelium of endothelial cells is covered by
3-4 layers of smooth muscle cells (tunica
media). The smooth muscle cell nuclei
are cut in longitudinal section because the long axis of the smooth muscle
cells is perpendicular to the long axis of the vessel. The artery is surrounded
by a layer of collagenous connective tissue (tunica
adventitia) that is continuous with the surrounding connective tissue.
