Microvessel or microvasculature refers to the smallest systems of blood vessels in a body, including those responsible for microcirculation, the system of smaller blood vessels that distribute blood within tissues. Common examples of microvessels include:
- Arterioles, a small diameter blood vessel that extends and branches out from an artery and leads to capillaries
- Capillaries, the smallest blood vessels
- Metarterioles, a vessel that links arterioles and capillaries
- Sinusoids, similar to a capillary, but with a discontinuous endothelium
- Venules, a blood vessel that allows deoxygenated blood to return from the capillary beds to the larger blood vessels called veins