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Fig.1) Schematic diagram of the nephron (yellow), relevant circulation (red/blue), and the four methods of altering the filtrate. The nephron is the functional unit of the kidney. [3] This means that each separate nephron is where the main work of the kidney is performed. A nephron is made of two parts:
The kidneys excrete a variety of waste products produced by metabolism into the urine. The microscopic structural and functional unit of the kidney is the nephron. It processes the blood supplied to it via filtration, reabsorption, secretion and excretion; the consequence of those processes is the production of urine.
Diagram outlining movement of ions in nephron, with the collecting ducts on the right. The collecting duct system is the final component of the kidney to influence the body's electrolyte and fluid balance. In humans, the system accounts for 4–5% of the kidney's reabsorption of sodium and 5% of the kidney's reabsorption of water. At times of ...
In contrast, the epithelium transitions to a simple squamous type in the thin segment, which is less metabolically active and has minimal surface specializations. The presence of aquaporin-1 channels in the thin segment facilitates high water permeability, crucial for water reabsorption as part of the kidney's countercurrent exchange mechanism ...
Diagram showing the basic physiologic mechanisms of the kidney. The kidney's ability to perform many of its functions depends on the three fundamental functions of filtration, reabsorption, and secretion, whose sum is called renal clearance or renal excretion.
Within the nephron of the kidney, the ascending limb of the loop of Henle is a segment of the heterogenous loop of Henle downstream of the descending limb, after the sharp bend of the loop. This part of the renal tubule is divided into a thin and thick ascending limb ; the thick portion is also known as the distal straight tubule , in contrast ...
The glomerulus (pl.: glomeruli) is a network of small blood vessels (capillaries) known as a tuft, located at the beginning of a nephron in the kidney. Each of the two kidneys contains about one million nephrons. The tuft is structurally supported by the mesangium (the space between the blood vessels), composed of intraglomerular mesangial cells.
Reabsorption allows many useful solutes (primarily glucose and amino acids), salts and water that have passed through Bowman's capsule, to return to the circulation. These solutes are reabsorbed isotonically , in that the osmotic potential of the fluid leaving the proximal convoluted tubule is the same as that of the initial glomerular filtrate.