Which vessel carries nutrient-rich blood from the intestines to the liver?

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Nutrient-rich blood from the gut is directed to the liver before joining the general circulation. This happens through the portal venous system, which brings absorbed nutrients straight to the liver for processing. The vessel that carries blood from the intestines into the liver is the hepatic portal vein. It collects blood from digestive organs (via tributaries like the superior mesenteric and splenic veins) and delivers it into the liver sinusoids where nutrients can be taken up and metabolites processed. After the liver works on it, the blood exits via the hepatic veins into the inferior vena cava to return to the heart. The aorta carries arterial blood away from the heart to the body, not from the gut to the liver, and the inferior vena cava returns systemic venous blood to the heart rather than supplying gut-derived blood to the liver. The portal vein term is often used, but the specific conduit feeding the liver from the intestines is the hepatic portal vein, making it the best answer.