Sodium and potassium balance Flashcards
What is osmolarity
Measure of the solute (particle) concentration in a solution (osmoles/liter)
1 Osmole = 1 mole of dissolved particles per liter (1 mole of NaCl = 2 moles of particles in solution)
Depends on the number of dissolved particles
The greater the number of dissolved particles, the greater the osmolarity
What is normal plasma osmolarity?
What is the most prevalent, and important, solute in the ECF?
285-295mosmol/L
Sodium
How does an increase in sodium affect weight?
Increase in water and therefore increase in weight
What does an increased dietary sodium lead to?
Where are signals regarding sodium levels produced?
Lateral Parabrachial nucleus
What does a decrease in sodium lead to?
Increase appetite for Na+ via GABA and opiods
What does an increase in sodium lead to?
Inhibition of Na+ intake via seretonin glutamate
Where is sodium reabsorbed in the nephron
67% in the PCT
25% in the thick ascending limb
5% in the DCT
3% in the collecting duct
Rest excreted
What happens after a certain amount of blood pressure in terms of GFR and RPF?
It plateaus
Approx 20% of renal plasma enters the tubular system
GFR=RPF*2
What does an increase in tubular sodium lead to?
How does sympathetic activity affect sodium excretion?
Increases
-Contracts smooth muscle cells of afferent arteriole
-Stimulates sodium uptake via the PCT
-Stimulates JGA to produce renin
-Which leads to production of angiotensin II
-This stimulates cells of PCT to take up sodium and stimulates adrenal glands to produce aldosterone
-This stimulates uptake of sodium in DCT
Low tubular Na can stimulate renin production
How is sodium reabsorption decreased?
Using atrial naturietic peptide
Reduces uptake in PCT, DCT and CT
Suppresses renin production
What happens when there is low or high sodium in terms of volume expansion and contraction?
What is aldosterone and where is it synthesised?
Steroid hormone
Synthesised and released from the adrenal cortex (zona glomerulosa)
Released in response to
Angiotensin ll (which promotes release of aldosterone synthase), which produces aldosterone from cholesterol after 2 enzymatic steps
Decrease in blood pressure (via baroreceptors)
What does aldosterone stimulate?
What happens when there is excess aldosterone?
How does aldosterone work?
Is a steroid hormone so passes through membrane
Then binds to the mineralocorticoid receptor, which is inside the cytoplasm and binded to HSP19
Once aldosterone binds, the HSP19 is removed and the mineralocorticoid receptor, now a dimer, and is able to translocate to the nucleus and binds to the DNA. Stimulate mRNA genes under its control