The spleen has a capsule made of elastin and smooth muscle. Why would the spleen want to contract?



Answers:
One of the various functions of the spleen is a store house for blood. In the event you have a sudden drop in blood pressure due to the loss of blood or some other form of shock, it can in effect increase your circulating blood volume by forcing blood from the organ into the blood vessels. It's sort of like giving yourself a transfusion in an emergency.
In some species--whether this is true of humans or not is not, at this time, decided--the splenic capsule will contract, squeezing the blood out. Usually this is blood that was sequestered when it was oxygen-rich, and is being dumped into the blood-stream when the rest of the blood is oxygen poor. As I recall it, this is a trick used by some cetaceans and pinnipeds (whales and seals) to prolong the time they can spend under water.

In humans, the reason remains guesswork; we've really not bothered studying that point.

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