Video Transcript
What is the function of the renal
artery? (A) Carrying urea from the kidney
to the bladder, (B) carrying urea from the bladder to the kidney, (C) carrying blood
from the kidney to the heart, or (D) carrying blood from the heart to the
kidney.
As is the case for many structures
of the human body, we can work out the function of the renal artery by breaking down
its name. The word “renal” describes anything
relating to the kidneys. You may recall that the kidneys are
a pair of bean-shaped organs which filter waste substances out of the blood to be
excreted.
All four answer options refer to
the kidneys, so we cannot rule any of them out at this stage. An artery is a type of blood
vessel. We can therefore eliminate answer
options (A) and (B) because we know the renal artery must carry blood and not
urea.
Arteries carry blood away from the
heart to all the parts of the body that require it, such as the kidneys. This is easy to remember because
the words “artery” and “away” both start with the letter A.
We have therefore deduced that the
correct answer is (D). The function of the renal artery is
to carry blood from the heart to the kidney.
