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Arterial function
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Once blood leaves the heart, it has to be distributed, and that job belongs to the muscular arteries: they deliver blood to the organs and to the different regions of the body. Further along that route are the arterioles, and their work is different. They set vascular resistance, meaning how much opposition the blood runs into as it keeps moving forward.
They do it by changing the width of their lumen, the hollow space inside where the blood runs. Think of the nozzle on a garden hose: close it down and the opening gets narrow and the water meets more opposition; open it up and the space widens and the opposition drops. The same thing happens when an arteriole narrows or widens its lumen.
In brief
Muscular arteries distribute blood to the organs and regions of the body.
Arterioles regulate vascular resistance by changing the diameter of the lumen, the inner channel through which blood flows. Narrowing that channel increases resistance to flow; widening it lowers resistance.
Sources (1)
- OpenStax, Rice UniversityAnatomy and Physiology 2e: Structure and Function of Blood VesselsPublished
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