Renal System Flashcards
doctor speciality
nephrologist
kidney
each of a pair of organs in the abdominal cavity of mammals, birds, and reptiles, that excrete urine
micturition reflex
Micturition is the act of urinating
The reflex is activated when the urinary bladder wall is stretched as it fills with urine
This is fundamentally a spinal reflex
This process is subject to voluntary facilitation and inhibition
nephron
The functional unit of the kidney, approximately 1.3 million nephrons are distributed throughout the cortex and medulla of each kidney
renal corpuscle
Structures in the Renal Corpuscle make up the filtration membrane, it houses the Glomerulus
glomerulus
a knot of capillaries, fluid is filtered in the glomerulus to form filtrate
renal tubule
Once blood is filtered by the renal corpuscle, the fluid follows the path of the renal tubule.
loop of henle
long U-shaped portion of the tubule that conducts urine within each nephron of the kidney
3 major steps of urine formation
Filtration
Tubular Reabsorption
Tubular Secretion
filtration
A non-selective process where materials are separated based on size
The Bowman’s Capsule acts as a sieve, where substances such as water, sodium, and glucose are filtered
Blood should not be able to pass through as they are too large
The kidneys are constantly monitoring blood composition and so filters all substances and puts the majority back for cellular function.
tubular reabsorption
A critical process for preventing the body from becoming overly dehydrated and deficient in important materials
This process occurs via osmosis, simple diffusion, facilitated diffusion, and active transport
The proximal convoluted tubule is the site of the majority of reabsorption due to their numerous villi
tubular secretion
this is the movement of non-filtered substances from the blood into the filtrate
