Blood air to all of the cells of the body, and venous blood carries carbon dioxide, a waste product of metabolism by cells, to the lungs to be exhaled. However, one exception includes pulmonary arteries, which contain the most deoxygenated blood in the body, while the pulmonary veins contain oxygenated blood. Additional return flow may be generated by the movement of skeletal muscles, which can compress veins and push blood through the valves in veins toward the right atrium. The blood circulation was famously described by William Harvey in 1628. In vertebrates, the various cells of blood are made in the
Tail vein Tail vein Tail vein or caudal vein is the largest vein in vertebrate animals' tail. It leads directly into the posterior cardinal vein in the posterior trunk in fishes. Mammal caudal vein (the middle caudal vein) leads to inferior vena cava. Caudal vein is one of the many places from which a laboratory worker can withdraw blood from a mouse specimen. The process does not require the death of the mouse, that is, assuming that not too much more than the established standard of "no more than two blood samples are taken per session and in any one 24-hour period.".