- Three types of blood vessels
- artery
- vein
- capillary
- Artery: Carries blood from the heart to other parts of the body.
- Vein: Carries blood from other parts of the body back to the heart.
- The arteries divides into smaller branches called arterioles.
- The veins receives blood from smaller branches called venules.
- Capillaries: Blood vessels connect the arterioles and venules.
- Around the capillaries are body cells.
(Image derived from the work of Kelvinsong and is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.)
Comparison
| Artery | Vein | Capillary | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main function | Carries oxygenated blood from the to ather parts of the body | Carries dexoygenated blood from the other parts of the body to the heart. | Connect arterioles and venules. Allows exchange of materials between the blood and the cells. |
| Blood | Carries oxygenated blood except pulmonary artery | Carries deoxygenated blood except pulmonary vein | |
| Valves | No valves except pulmonary artery | All have valves except pulmonary vein | No valves |
| Blood pressure | High | Low | Very low |
| Blood flow | Rapid | Slow | Very slow |
| Diagram |  |  |  |
| Wall | Thick muscular wall | Thin wall and less muscular | Thin wall, only one-cell thick |
| Size of lumen | Small lumen | Big lumen | Very small lumen |
| Branches | Arterioles | Venules | No |
(All 3 images in the table above are derived from the work of Kelvinsong and is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.