Video Transcript
What is the primary purpose of the
systemic circulatory system? (A) To transport blood between the
heart and the lungs. (B) To transport blood between the
heart and the rest of the body. (C) To transport glucose and amino
acids to the liver. Or (D) to transport blood to the
heart to be oxygenated.
This question asks us about the
systemic circulatory system, which you might recall is one of the divisions of the
double circulatory system in humans. The other division is called the
pulmonary circulatory system, and these names give us some clues about what they
do. The entire circulatory system is
composed of the heart and its vessels. These vessels include arteries,
which carry blood away from the heart, and veins, which carry blood into the
heart.
You might remember that cells of
the human body require oxygen to survive, and the main function of the systemic
circulatory system is to deliver this oxygen-rich blood to all the cells in the
body. After delivering oxygen to body
cells, the systemic system also carries deoxygenated blood back to the heart, which
contains carbon dioxide and other waste products from the cells.
You might remember that carbon
dioxide can be exchanged for oxygen in the lungs through a process called
oxygenation. The word “pulmonary” means lungs,
and the primary function of the pulmonary circuit of the circulatory system is to
oxygenate the deoxygenated blood pumped from the heart to the lungs and then return
this oxygenated blood to the heart so it can be pumped to the body cells via the
systemic circulatory system.
Now that we have discussed both the
pulmonary and systemic circulatory systems, we should be able to answer our
question. We know that the systemic
circulatory system carries oxygen-rich blood from the heart to all the cells of the
body. Therefore, the correct answer to
our question asking about the primary purpose of the systemic circulatory system is
(B): to transport blood between the heart and the rest of the body.
