Renal 1

Question 1

Which blood vessels supply the kidneys with blood

Answer 1

the renal artery and the renal vein

Question 2

What are the names of the outer and inner regions of the kidney

Answer 2

Outer region - cortex

Inner region - medulla

Question 3

How many kidneys do humans have and where are they in the body

Answer 3

2 which can be found on the back of the abdominal wall (not in the peritoneal cavity)

Question 4

What are the homeostatic functions of the kidney (4)

Answer 4

• Regulate blood volume
• Regulate blood pressure
• Regulate osmolarity (by maitaining ion levels within the body (ie sodium))
• Maintains the acid base balance in the body

Question 5

What are the excretion based functions of the kidney

Answer 5

• they excrete metabolites (ie urea which is the product of protein metabolism)
• they excrete chemicals and theraputic drugs

Question 6

What endocrine based chemicals do the kidneys produce

Answer 6

• Erythropoietin (important for the production of red blood cells)
• Vitamin D3 (regulaes calcium homeostasis. A lack of calcium in the body leads to rickets)

Question 7

What is the functional unit of the kidney and how many of these does each kidney contain

Answer 7

Nephrons. Each kidney contains roughly 1 million nephrons

Question 8

How does blood flow round a kidney nephron

Answer 8

Blood flows into the afferent arteriole, through into the glomerulus (a bunch of capilliaries), then (via the efferent arteriole) into the peritubular capilliary (also known as the vasa recta).

Question 9

Where in the nephron are fluids and ions filtered from the blood into the nephron fluid conducting system

Answer 9

In the glomerulus, across bowmans capsule and into bowmans space.

Question 10

Once the fluid is in the fluid conducting system, where does it pass through before reaching the bladder

Answer 10

The fluid will flow from bowmans space into the proximal conveluted tubule and then down into the proximal straight tubule. After this it flows down to the loop of henle before flowing into the distidal convoluted tubule, into the cortical collecting duct before reaching the medullary collecting duct. Finally the fluid flows down the renal pelvis and into the ureter before finally reaching the bladder