AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -What makes pulmonary veins different from other veins? Your pulmonary veins are the only veins in your body that carry oxygen-rich blood. All your other veins carry oxygen-poor blood. Similarly, your pulmonary arteries are the only arteries that carry oxygen-poor blood.

Detailed explanation-2: -A crucial difference is that your pulmonary artery carries oxygen-poor (deoxygenated) blood, while your aorta carries oxygen-rich (oxygenated) blood. In fact, your pulmonary arteries are the only arteries in your body that carry oxygen-poor blood.

Detailed explanation-3: -The pair of pulmonary arteries take blood away from the heart to the lungs of the respective side. The two pairs of pulmonary veins carry oxygen-rich blood from the lungs to the heart. Blood in pulmonary arteries is deoxygenated. Blood in pulmonary veins is oxygenated.

Detailed explanation-4: -While veins usually carry deoxygenated blood from tissues back to the heart, in this case, pulmonary veins are among the few veins that carry oxygenated blood instead. Oxygenated blood from the lungs is circulated back to the heart through the pulmonary veins that drain into the left atrium.

Detailed explanation-5: -How is the blood in the pulmonary veins different from blood in other veins? The blood in the pulmonary veins is oxygenated and travels away from the lungs to the heart compared to all other veins that also carry blood to the heart, but the blood is deoxygenated and brought back from the cells of the body.