Renal physiology Flashcards
What is the plasma clearance?
The volume of plasma completely cleared of a particular substance per minute
How can the plasma clearance of a substance be calculated?
Clearance of substance X = rate of excretion of X/plasma concentration of X
What is the clearance of inulin and what implications does this have clinically?
Inulin clearance = GFR
Therefore, inulin clearance can be used to calculate GFR
What is the plasma clearance of glucose and why?
Clearance = 0
It is filtered in the glomerulus, completely reabsorped and not secreted from plasma or excreted in urine
What will the clearance of a substance that is filtered, partly reabsorped and not secreted be and give an example?
Clearance < GFR
What will the clearance of a substance that is filtered, secreted and not reabsorped be, and give an example?
Clearance > GFR
H+
What is para-amino hippuric acid?
An exogenous organic anion used clinically to calculate renal plasma flow
What is the clearance of para-amino hippuric acid?
Complete - it is filterd, secreted, but not reabsorped
All the PAH in the plasma that escapes filtration is secreted from the peritubular capillaries
What is the filtration fraction?
The fraction of plasma flowing through the glomeruli that is filtered into the tubules
i.e. ~20% of the plasma that enters the glomeruli is filtered - the remaining 80% moves on to the peritubular capillaries
Which substances are reabsorped in the proximal tubule?
Sugars
Amino acids
Phosphate
Sulphate
Lactate
Which substances are secreted in the proximal tubule?
H+
Hippurates
Neurotransmitters
Bile pigments
Uric acid
Drugs
Toxins
What are the five steps in tubular reabsorption?
- Absorption into epithelial cell
- Movement across epithelial cell
- Transport out of epithelial cell
- Diffusion across interstitial fluid
- Diffusion across capillary wall
What does paracellular transport in the proximal tubule depend on?
Tightness of junction between tubular epithelial cells
Which kind of transport mechanism is essential at th basolateral membrane for sodium reabsorption, and how does this occur?
The energy-dependent Na+-K+ ATPase transport mechanism at the basolateral membrane pumps sodium out of the epithelial cell, creating a concentration gradiant that draws sodium out of the proximal tubule by diffusion
Sodium pumped into interstitial fluid is then taken into blood by diffusion
How can the concentration gradient of sodium from proximal tubule to epithelial cell, created by the active transport pump at the basolateral membrane, be used for reabsorption of other substances?
The sodium gradient can be used to drive glucose and amino acid uptake, using secondary active transport and co-transporters
It can also be used to secrete H+ into the filtrate
What percentage of the filtered glucose is reabsorbed in the proximal tubule?
Normally 100%
What is the definition of the transport maximum e.g. of glucose?
The greatest quantity of glucose filtered from the plasma that can successfully be reabsorped in the proximal tubule
Explain why the blue line for ‘excreted’ only occurs later in the graph?
Glucose only begins to be excreted once the transport maximum has been reached
Excretion is the difference between filtration and reabsorption
What percentage of salt and water is reabsorbed in the proximal tubule?
~67%
How is Cl- reabsorption in the proximal tubule driven?
Driven by the paracellular pathway to Na+ reabsorption
What is the function of the loop of henle?
To create a cortico-medullary solute concentration gradient
What is reabsorped in the ascending limb of the loop of henle?
Na+
Cl-
Is the ascending limb of the loop of henle permeable or impermeable to water?
Relatively impermeable
Is the reabsorption of salt active or passive in the ascending limb of the loop of henle?
Active in the upper/thick part
Passive in the lower/narrow part
What is reabsorped in the descending limb of the loop of henle?
Water
It does not reabsorb salt
Through which transport mechanism is salt reabsorped in the thick ascending limb of the loop of henle?
Na+ K+ Cl- triple co-transporter
How is potassium from the triple co-transporter in the thick ascending limb of the loop of henle used in salt reabsorption?
It is recycled: a cotransporter uses potassium to pump Cl- into the interstitial fluid and then the K+ is used in a countertransporter to pump Na+ from the cell
What is the purpose of countercurrent multiplication?
To concentrate the medullary interstitial fluid, enabling the kidney to respond to ADH to produce urine of different volume and concentration