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aorta
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Aorta
The body's main artery, arising from the left ventricle of the heart in birds and mammals. Carrying freshly oxygenated blood, it arches over the top of the heart and descends through the trunk, finally splitting in the lower abdomen to form the two iliac arteries. Arteries branching off the arch of the aorta carry blood to the upper body. Loss of elasticity in the aorta provides evidence of atherosclerosis, which may lead to heart disease.
In fish a ventral aorta carries deoxygenated blood from the heart to the gills, and the dorsal aorta carries oxygenated blood from the gills to other parts of the body.
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