Kidney Flashcards
(47 cards)
Kidney’s main functions
- Eliminate nitrogenous waste
- Water balance (i.e. concentrate urine)
- pH balance
- Set the concentration of extracellular fluids (i.e. Na+, K+, etc)
Typical blood plasma concentration
300 mOsm
Typical concentration of urine
1200 mOsm
UP ratio
The concentration of urine/concentration of plasma. For us it’s about 1200mOsm/300mOsm = 4
Fluid pathway in body
Blood–>kidney–>ureter–>bladder–>urethra–>out
Major portions of the kidney
- cortex - outer portion
- medulla - inner portion
- renal pelvis - collects urine that goes to the ureter
cortex and medulla
–osmolarity changes b/w cortex and medulla are most important way kidney regulates shit
renal pelvis
collects the urine that goes to ureter
nephron
- -the functional unit of the kidney
- -about 1 million nephrons per kidney
afferent arteriole
carries blood TO the glomerulus
efferent arteriole
carries blood AWAY from the glomerulus
Functions of the nephron
- Filtration
- Reabsorption
- Secretion
- Excretion
Filtration
Occurs in the glomerulus in Bowman’s capsule
glomerulus
the capillary bed in bowman’s capsule where blood first gets filtered into the kidney
What goes into the kidney and what stays out?
- -Big things do not go into the kidney: red blood cells, white blood cells, big proteins
- -what goes into the kidney: everything else
GFR
glomerular filtration rate
Numbers
- -600 ml of plasma goes into afferent arteriole
- -120 ml goes into bowman’s capsule
- -a good amount of this 120 ml gets reabsorbed and the rest goes out as urine
reabsorption
- -occurs in the proximal tubule
- -most occurs by active transport
- -Sodium is pumped out of proximal tubule
- -Water follows sodium due to osmotic gradient (when sodium is pumped out, you increase solutes in extracellular space, so water follows)
- -the concentration of other solutes inside the proximal tubule increases as a result of water leaving
- -small molecules can diffuse out of proximal tubule according to the concentration gradient
glomerulus vs. peritubular capillary bed
- -glomerulus is filtration only
- -peritubular capillary bed is reabsorption only
vasa recta
–branches off the peritubular capillary to carry blood into the medulla
podocyte
- -a special cell with long finger-like projections that wraps around the capillaries
- -function to do the size-selecting for what gets through the glomerulus into the kidney
collecting duct
- -this is where urine gets really concentrated
- -water leaches out of the collecting duct as it moves down b/c of the osmotic gradient that is in the interstitial space
- -(the loop of henle has set up this osmotic gradient in the medulla)
ADH
- -anti-diuretic hormone
- -This hormone acts on the collecting duct
- -When ADH is present, it increases permeability of the collecting duct to water –> more water reabsorption –> less urine
- -Caffeine and beer are ADH blockers, which means you decrease the permeability of the collecting duct to water –> more urine excreted
- -Uses cAMP transduction mechanism
osmoreceptors
- -found in the hypothalamus
- -they take account of the osmolarity of the blood and regulate whether ADH is released from the posterior pituitary