Title: umbilical artery
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - umbilical artery
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.11338
Status: current

Definition
Paired artery that, in the fetus, returns deoxygenated blood from each half of the fetal body to the placenta, via the umbilical cord.

Note
In the adult, part of the umbilical artery remains open as a branch of the internal iliac artery, and part ceases to be an artery and becomes the medial umbilical ligament.

Related Terms
- adult: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/10347
- fetus: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/10718
- iliac artery: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/10839
- placenta: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/11095
- umbilical cord: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/11339

Source
- PAC, 2016, 88, 713. 'Glossary of terms used in developmental and reproductive toxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2016)' on page 817 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2015-1202)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11338/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11338/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11338/xml

Citation: Citation: 'umbilical artery' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.11338
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
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Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-07-15T00:10:37+00:00