Human kidney
Kidneys consist of excretory tubules called nephrons. Kidneys play a vital role of processing waste products of metabolism. Blood is continuously being cycled through the kidneys in order to remove nitrogenous wastes. The removal of these wastes plays an integral role in maintaining homeostasis. The urinary system consists of kidneys, blood vessels and the various passageways that dump the wastes out of the body. The "dirty blood" that needs to be "cleaned" goes into the kidney through the renal artery and exits it through the renal vein. It undergoes the process of filtration. The waste product, termed urine exits the kidneys with the help of the ureter duct. The ureter drains all the urin in to the urinary bladder. During urination, the urine exits the body through the urethra.
GLOMERULAR FILTRATION
Blood in the glomerulus is separated from the space in the Bowman’s capsule by two thin cellular layers (glomerular endothelium cells and podocytes), which form an ultra-fine filter for filterable plasma constituents.
These include useful substances (e.g. water inorganic substances, glucose, amino acids) and waste products (e.g. urea, uric acid and creatinine) .
Unfilterable constituents are plasma proteins and blood cells. Filterable plasma constituents then move from the glomerulus to the Bowman’s capsule because of high blood pressure in the glomerulus and the highly permeable glomerular membrane Ö
TUBULAR RE-ABSORPTION
Useful substances like glucose, amino acids and to an extent electrolytes are usually completely reabsorbed in the proximal convoluted tubules through either active or passive reabsorption .
Water is reabsorbed through a complex control system involving sodium chloride that happens mainly in the medulla of the kidney where the loops of Henle are . Through these processes the kidney is mainly responsible for maintaining the balance of water and useful substances in the human body.
Written by Muhammad Saeed
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