What is the vessel type that transports blood away from the heart?

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Blood moves through the circulatory system in a direction determined by the vessel type. Arteries are the vessels that carry blood away from the heart. Their thick, muscular walls and elastic tissue help them withstand the high pressure from each heartbeat and push blood forward into the body’s branches. As they move farther from the heart, arteries become smaller arteries and arterioles, continuing to deliver blood to tissues.

There is a notable exception to the oxygen content inside the name: the pulmonary artery also carries blood away from the heart, but it transports deoxygenated blood to the lungs for oxygenation. Despite this, the fundamental directional role of arteries is to move blood away from the heart.

Veins, in contrast, return blood toward the heart; capillaries are tiny vessels where exchange of oxygen, nutrients, and waste occurs between blood and tissues; venules are the small vessels that collect blood from capillaries and feed into veins. Therefore, the vessel type that transports blood away from the heart is arteries.