Renal Blood Flow & Glomerular Filtration Flashcards
How much of our body weight is taken up by the kidneys?
2 kidneys - 0.5% of body weight
How much of the cardiac output do kidneys receive?
20% resting CO due to kidneys role in Extracellular fluid (ECF) & blood volume regulation as well as rapid waste disposal
What are the main functions of the kidneys?
- Control volume & composition of body fluids
- Get rid of waste material from body
- Acid-Base balance
- Endocrine organ – EPO, Renin & Vit D
What is the functional unit of the kidney?
Nephron ~4cm long
How many nephrons are in a kidney?
1 million nephrons per kidney
Kidney cannot regenerate nephrons
What are the 2 components of the nephron?
- glomerulus
- tubule
What are the 2 stages of urine formation?
- Glomeruli produce liquid
2. Tubules modify the volume + composition
What is the fate of the fluid filtered by the glomerulus?
Nearly all fluid filtered through glomerulus is reabsorbed back from tubule → blood.
Remainder excreted as urine at rate of 1 ml/min (equivalent to ~1.5L/day)
What rate of urine production is considered renal failure?
urine output is <5ml/day then = renal failure
How much fluid does the glomerulus filter everyday?
A huge filtration rate (180 L/day)
Why is there such a high GFR?
High rate of formation of glomerular fluid is needed to wash out the waste products fast enough to keep their blood level low
What is the normal GFR?
glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of 120 ml/min
How is the glomerular filtrate formed?
Glomerular Filtration formed by passive ultrafiltration of plasma across the glomerular membrane, (Starling’s Law of Capillary fluid filtration)
What determines the GFR?
Autoregulation
Renal sympathetic vasomotor nerve activity
What is the glomerulus composed of?
consists of a clump of fenestrated capillaries & Bowman’s Capsule
Explain how the glomerulus and bowmans capsule are located
The glomerulus is completely enclosed by epithelium of the Bowman’s Capsule (BC); they are specialised to form podocytes
What is the GFR composed of?
Glomerular fluid is a passive ultrafiltrate of plasma (proteins filtered out)
What s the [ ] of small solutes in GFR?
For small solutes, such as NaCl, glucose and urea, concentration in glomerular fluid = concentration in plasma as they easily pass through
Explain the [ ] of larger solutes in GFR compared to plasma
For plasma proteins, concentration in glomerular fluid = almost zero
Urine is routinely tested for protein (proteinuria)
Proteinuria = sign of renal/urinary tract disease
What drives the ultrafiltration process?
A net pressure drop (imbalance of stralin’g forces) across glomerular membrane drives the ultrafiltration process
How does the Glomerular membrane filter solutes?
Glomerular membrane sieves out solutes from plasma by molecular size
How is fluid pushed out of the vessels?
In the kidney the capillary pressure is highest compared to other arterioles in the body ~50 mmHg. This results in an outward force i.e. pushing fluid out of the blood vessel.
What 2 other components of pressure are acting oppositely to the capillary pressure?
There are 2 components of pressure acting in the opposite direction to this: one is the colloid osmotic pressure exerted by proteins in the blood (25mmHg) & the other is the pressure in the Bowman’s space (10mmHg).
What is the net effect of all the pressures in the capillaries?
The net effect is an outward force of approximately 15mmHg that drives fluid out of the capillary into the BC