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Arteries are blood vessels that transport blood at high pressure from the heart to the body. They expand when receiving blood from the heart and return to normal size during contractions, which helps maintain stable blood pressure as the heart beats. Arteries are the blood vessels that carry blood under relatively high pressure away from the heart to the body. Because of their elastic nature, arteries expand when they receive cardiac output from the ventricles and return to normal size during ventricular contractions, which minimizes blood pressure change in the system as the heart contracts and relaxes.