Mesentery collector valves in the guinea pig: morpho-functional aspects

Abstract In guinea pig mesenterial lymph vessels there are many bicuspid valves, which determine the flow centralwards of lymph. Our observations, based on the study of 52 guinea pig lymph collectors, demonstrated a different number of valves on different parts of each vessel. In fact we found more valves in the part near the intestinal wall and the mesenterial lymph node than in the middle part of the vessel. Besides we measured the time of flow in these different portions by Indian ink injection and we found a correlation between valve number and flow. In fact the time of flow decreases with the increase of the number of valves the shortest being near the intestinal wall and the mesenterial lymph node and the longest being in the middle part of the collectors. The experimental data indicate that the valves have an important role in the lymph circulation because they favour the flow lymph velocity.