Renal physiology and pharmacology Flashcards
(162 cards)
What are the functions of the kidney?
Filtration of blood
Detoxification
Regulation of blood pressure
Regulation of blood pH
Regulation of haematopoiesis (produces erthyropoietin)
Activates Vit D
What is the slit diaphragm?
Gaps between podocytes which wrap around the blood vessels in the kidneys
Smaller molecules could pass through these gaps
What is the biggest hole size in the slit diaphragm?
Size of albumin molecule
Why is high pressure needed to push blood into the filtrate?
Pushing molecules through filter- only about 3% of the total area is slit so there is major resistance
Thermodynamics- need pressure to stop water from flowing back to the area with greater ion concentration
What are efferent and afferent arterioles?
Efferent= drains blood from kidney
Afferent= applies blood to kidney
What happens when afferent and efferent arterioles are restricted?
Afferent= blood pressure in glomerular capillaries drops and thus filtration rate drops
Efferent= blood pressure in capillaries rises and filtration rate rises
How are stuck molecules removed from the filter in the kidney?
Small molecules that get stuck in the filters are brought in pinocytosis (phagocytosis of small molecules)
Mesangial cells are constantly recycling the glomerular basement membrane so that large molecules which are stuck are moved
What was the structure of the glomerulous membrane?
GBM= glomerular basement membrane
How are the parts of the glomerular membrane cleaned?
Endothelial cells= cleaned by blood flow and phagocytes
Podocytes= cleaned by pinocytosis
Basement membrane= renewed by mesangial cells
What was the glomerulus?
The glomerulus, the filtering unit of the kidney, is a specialized bundle of capillaries that are uniquely situated between two resistance vessels
Alot of branching that comes together
What is the space in which the glomerulus sits?
Bowman’s capsule
What is the renal corpsule?
Glomerulus structure and Bowman’s capsule
How many renal corpsules do humans have?
50,000-1,000,000 per kidney
What is Barker hypothesis?
Barker hypothesis- number of nephrons follows mother’s amino acid nutrition
Nutrition restriction (especially lack of protein) during foetal life may lead to having as little as 100,000 nephrons. May be adaptive so the foetus loses less proteins. The consequence is high blood pressure
What do high levels of plasma creatinine indictate?
Indicative of kidney problems
How does the glomerular filtration rate compare with levels of creatinine in the plasma?
What does the amount of creatinine in the urine tell us?
The amount filtered, as it is not reabsorbed
What is the equasion for the clearance rate of a substance that is not reabsorbed in the kidney?
What are the options for those who have severe chornic filtration conditions?
Dialysis or transplant
What is the nephron divided into?
What is the differences in proximal and distal tubules?
Proximal have microvilli, distal tubules do not
Where in the nephron are tight junctions leaky?
The proximal tubule
What is the common plasma membrane transporter in the proximal tubule?
Na+ K+ ATPase
What are the different solute recovery channels in the nephron?
Primary active transporters- require energy ( Na+ K+ ATPase and H+ ATPase)
Solute carrier proteins- co-transporters powered by established concentration gradients
Aquaporins
Ion channels