Cardiovascular System
The cardiovascular system is made of two main parts; the heart and the blood vessels. These blood vessels are the arteries, veins, and the capillaries. The arteries lead away from the heart and transport freshly oxygenated blood. Arteries are also the thickest walled blood vessel due to the high blood pressure. The second blood vessel is veins. Veins are the second thickest and are significantly thinner than arteries due to lower pressure. In fact, the pressure is so low that they only have one way valves in them. Veins lead toward the heart to get pumped back to the lungs to get oxygenated again. The third type of blood vessel is the capillary. Capillaries are the thinnest blood vessel and usually have walls that are one cell thick. The walls are only one cell thick so that oxygen and nutrients can pass through with ease and get to the cells that need it. Then the oxygen poor blood goes through the rest of the capillaries to collect in veins. Then it goes back to the heart. The second major part of the cardiovascular is the heart. The heart is made of cardiac muscles which contract and relax to pump blood. There are four chambers in a human heart. The four chambers are known as the left and right atrium and the left and right ventricle. Each chamber is sealed off by one way valves so that blood doesn’t go in the wrong direction. The left and right sides of the heart are separated by muscular tissue. That muscular tissue is known as the cardiovascular septum. The left side of the heart pumps blood to the lungs to get oxygenated. Then the oxygenated blood goes to the right side of the heart to get pumped to the rest of the body. To pump blood, cardiac muscles contract to create pressure in the heart to force blood out to the body. The cardiovascular system relates to the nervous system because the brain sends impulses to the heart to pump blood. The muscular system relates to the cardiovascular system because the blood brings oxygen to the muscle cells and carbon dioxide from them. This system also relates to the respiratory system because the lungs oxygenate blood to go out to the rest of the body. The skeletal system relates to the cardiovascular system because special bones makes red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.
This picture to the left depicts a diagram of the cardiovascular system.
This is a highly magnified picture of a network of veins and capillaries.