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Physiology, Lecture 8#
Renal System

First lecture for 2nd exam

18-10-2010
Dr. Nayef Gharaibeh

RENAL SYSTEM
When we are talking about renal system, we should cover
the following objectives.
First, we will introduce you to physiological anatomy of kidney
and the functional unit of it (which is the nephron). Second, we
will talk about the function of this system. Third, we will start
talking about the first step of urine formation. Because when
we form our urine, it goes through many steps. First, filtration.
2nd, reabsorbtion. 3rd, secretion and finally the excretion. So
these are the objectives of the lectures in renal system.

When we are talking about renal system, we are talking

about two kidneys. Each can weight about 150g, and they’re
located on the back of our abdominal cavity. And when we talk
about the importance of the system we mentioned that our
kidneys. We have two of them; one is more than enough to
provide us with normal physiological function. That’s why when
we have one defected kidney, we can take it off out, and the
patient will live normally, the rest of his life. But the problem
will be that he will have only one kidney, if something wrong,
that will be dangerous for his life. But one kidney is efficient to
form the normal urine and to do the proper function of the
renal system.

What are the functions of renal system (?). There are

about 5 or 6 functions, or even more. The most important
function of renal system: to excrete metabolic waste. This is
a major function. In our metabolism, normally we utilize the
good thing for our life, but there are some products produced
which are not good for health. So we should get rid of them.
The way to get rid of this metabolic waste is the renal system.
But it is well known, it is not easy to get rid of metabolic wastes
in solid form. They should be dissolved or suspended. So in
order to do so, we have to have some water with that urine.

So this is the major function but there are other functions

which are also important. Renal system maintains stable
extracellular fluid. Between practice extracellular fluid is the
internal environment. When the renal system stabilizes that, we
stabilize the homeostasis. What do we mean by stabilizing the
extracellular fluid? We mean by that, it make the extracellular
fluid volume constant and the composition constant. So it will
regulate the volume of body fluids and it will regulate the
content of the body fluids.

Third function, it plays a big role and major one in acid

base balance. You’ve heard this acid base balance. Acid base
balance: where the pH level is important for our live, we don’t
want to change the pH. So it should be 7.4 but it’s impossible to
keep it fixed all the time. There is a variability from up and
down, depend on the ingestion, whatever getting inside our
body, what’s the level of gases in the internal environment,
especially the carbon dioxide. As we mentioned in respiratory
system, if there is an increase of CO2 in your body, you will
hyperventilate, in order to get rid of that CO2. Because it is
toxic and plus, because it changes the pH. We don’t want to
change the pH.

So acid base balance, there are three major system

playing one function, to keep the pH constant. Those systems
are: 1. the blood 2. Respiratory system 3. Renal system
Why we have three systems to stabilize pH? Because it’s very
important. Now, pH is dangerous to be changed to acidic or
alkaline. If there is any change of pH within seconds, the blood
will interfere. The protein of the plasma protein, they will
interfere to stabilize the pH. So the function of blood, according
to the pH or acid base balance is very fast. They will interfere
within seconds. Now, if for reasons, the blood itself was not
enough to stabilize pH, and then pH will be different than
normal. In this case, the second system will come, which is the
respiratory system. Now after few seconds, if your pH is still
abnormal, the respiratory system will interfere, by
hyperventilating or hypo ventilating.
 If it’s acidic inside our body, we will start to
hyperventilate, to get rid of CO2. If its alkaline, we’ll start to
hypo ventilate, to increase the level of CO2, to get back to
normal pH. This is within minutes. Now, if for a reason, the pH
didn’t go to normal after respiratory interference, then the
renal system will come. It will come, after hours and days, but it
will correct the pH for sure. Then in other words, the most
efficient system for acid base balance is the renal system. It
takes longer time, but it is very accurate. If the pH change, it
will get it back exactly to 7.4. So, it is efficient by returning to
the normal pH. But regarding the time, it is late. It doesn’t
matter. The most important is to get the pH normal. This is
another function of the renal system.

Also we know from the blood lectures that kidneys, they

secretes erythropoietin which is the stimulus for
erythropoiesis. So it’s another function for the kidneys. Also I
think we mentioned rennin secretion somewhere in our lecture,
or we will repeat that in detail in renal system. This is another
function of the renal system. They stabilize blood pressure in
the vascular system. Since they keep the body fluid constant in
volume, they can stabilize the blood pressure. Also, they can
conserve or deplete the extra sodium or the extra salt, by
depleting the extra salt or keeping the normal salts inside your
body. They will stabilize the blood pressure again.

And also they have a function to change, or to stimulate,

or to activate Vitamin D. Vitamin D is important in metabolism,
but it is in inactive form inside our body. Kidneys, they are able
to modify that vitamin, to be active one and to be utilized.

Now, we are talking about a kidney, you saw how it looks.

If you look again, to that picture, you will see that the
peripheral part of the kidney is not brown but a little bit light of
brown. This part is called cortex. The cortex of the kidney, but
in the central you will see very brownish colour which is the
medulla (Medullary part). Why it is important to know this,
because when we are talking about the functional unit of the
renal system, which is called nephron, we have two types of
nephron. One group, about 80% of them is called cortical
nephrons, and the other group is called juxtamedullary
nephron. And there are big difference in the structure and the
function of those two groups.

From the kidney, there is special collecting chambers,

called the pelvis (where the urine will be collected there) then,
it will leave the kidney, to the ureter. Ureter is a tube, coming
from the kidney down to the urinary bladder. Urinary bladder,
the storage chamber of the urine, then from the urinary bladder
we have the urethra, which is different from male and female,
but the function of urethra to get out the urine by voluntary
and involuntary mechanism of physiology for urination.

Now when we are talking about the functional unit, we

mention that it is called nephron. If you look to this picture, this
is a nephron, and this is another nephron.
Nephron has two parts, the glomerulus (the beginning of the
nephron) and the tubular part. System of tubules, they are
different in shape, location and length. So if you take the first
nephron, the one I’ve showed here, this is the 80% of the
nephrons in the kidney and the number of nephrons in each
kidney is about 1 million. In other textbook you might see 1.5
million but the average is 2 to 3 millions in both kidneys. So in
this huge number, we have 80% of them, they look like this one
(which is the small). This is the glomerulus and then this is the
tubular system. Tubular system, it starts with the structure
called Bowman’s capsule. It’s a one layer epithelial structure
tubule, start with bowmen’s capsule then, after Bowmen’s
capsule comes the second structure of the tubular system, it is
called proximal tubule. 3rd one, the U shape structure, it is loop
of henle. 4th, this one is the distal tubule, then collecting tubule.
And finally, we have this long structure of duct. It is called
collecting duct.

This is the nephron. The glomerulus, and the tubular

system. Now, the one I followed in the picture is the cortical
one. Let’s go through the other one, juxtamedullary nephron.
This is the glomerulus inside the Bowman’s capsule. Bowman’s
capsule, again, proximal tubule, loop of henle, distal tubule,
collecting tubule, and collecting duct.

Now what’s the different between cortical and

juxtamedullary nephron. First, most of the nephron
(structurally) of the cortical type, located in the cortex. The only
part located in the medulla is the small part of loop of henle
and the collecting duct. Collecting duct of all nephrons, they
start in the cortex and then they go deep in the medulla. Now
let’s go to the juxtamedullary nephrons. And if you look to the
glomerulus and the proximal tubule (in cortical nephron), they
are far away from the medulla. They are on the top of the
cortex whereas the juxtamedullary nephron, the glomerulus
and the proximal tubule, they are in the cortex but on the
border of medulla. Then, the loop of henle, it goes deep in the
medulla (yous see the loop of henle of the first type? Very small
amount of it touches the medulla). In the juxtamedullary
nephron, most of the loop of henle and part of the distal tubule
are located in the medulla. Then, the late distal tubule and the
collecting tubule, they go back to the cortex and they will join
the collecting duct. And the collecting duct goes down to the
pelvis of the kidney.

It is so important to remember the location for the function of

these parts of tubular system. When we discuss later how we
form the urine, you will realise what’s the function of the
cortical nephrons and juxtamedullary nephrons. And since the
tubular system is just one layer of epithelial cell, structurally it’s
almost the same, but since we name it proximal, loop of henle,
distal, we gave different names because they have different
functions in the renal system.

Now, loop of henle, this one and this one. It has ascending
limb and descending limb. Ascending limb; which goes down.
Then up; the descending limb. Now this structure the U shape,
also without that structure, the renal system will be vanished.
So this U shape is so important to make this nephron perform
the normal function; which is the urine formation.

Let’s take the first part of the nephron, which is the

glomerulus. It’s a structure of vascular system. It’s just vessels
but it differs than the capillary network (you remember the
body fluid exchange in the
capillaries), you remember
how plasma leaves the first
half of the capillary? Then it
goes back to the 2nd half of
the capillary. In the renal
system, it has different
structure. You remember
that artery, arterioles,
capillary, venules, veins; this
is the normal structure of
vascular system.

In the kidneys, it’s

completely different
because the function is
different. Here, the blood
circulation is not to feed the
kidney. Why is the blood
circulation inside the
kidney?
To clean the plasma from metabolic waste and extra amount of
different substances. In order to achieve that, we have different
blood circulation and the blood circulation of this system is as
follow: We start with the blood flow inside the kidney. (slide no
7)
This is arteriole. Then, we will have this structure. It is called
afferent arteriole. After afferent arteriole, we have a net of
capillaries. It is called glomerular capillaries. Now remember,
if we are in the systemic circulation, after capillary we will have
the venules. But here, when we finish with these capillaries,
look how many there are inside the Bowman’s capsule (figure
at slide no 11, textbook page 410).

We go out of the glomerulus by efferent arteriole. We have

the same arterial structure, but it is efferent arteriole. Then, we
will go down and we will form another capillary set. This one
which is called peritubular capillaries set. Around the
tubules, we have another set of capillaries. After the peritubular
capillaries, we will have the blue structure of venules which
goes out by veins. Now, to make it important, I have to repeat
it. We have renal artery it goes from the aorta to the right
kidney one, to the left kidney the other artery. It goes inside
the kidney; it will be divided to different small arteries. Until
they reach million of glomerulus inside the kidney. From there,
they will send million afferent arterioles, to reach other one
arteriole. From that arteriole, we will have a net structure,
network of capillaries. All of that structure called glomerular
capillaries. Then when we finish the network of capillaries, it
will go out from the glomerulus by efferent arterioles. When it
goes out, it now will go to the tubular system. Finish from the
glomeruluar to the tubules. It doesn’t matter, cortical or
juxtamedullary; they will cause another set of capillaries
around tubules and it is called peritubular capillaries.

Now, there is one difference. If we are talking about

juxtamedullary nephron, these peritubular capillaries they will
form a new structure called vasa recta. It is important, since
there is special name for that structure, it has special function.
Now, if we go back to the glomerular capillaries; the first
structure of capillaries, if we measure the hydrostatic pressure
in there, if you still remember, what’s the hydrostatic pressure
in the systemic capillary for the body fluid exchange? It was 30
mmHg in the first half and 10 mmHg in the 2nd half. In this
glomerular capillary set, it’s completely different. It is one
hydrostatic pressure in the beginning and the end. And it is
about 55 mmHg(in your textbook). Now there is a different
between this capillary set and the systemic. It has more
hydrostatic pressure. Why it has more hydrostatic pressure?
And why it is the same from the beginning until the end?
Because we have the afferent arteriole with the smooth muscle
control and efferent arteriole with the smooth muscle confront.
Most of the time, we have a dilatation of the afferent and
constriction of efferent. Which allow the blood to go very high
inside the glomerulus, but doesn’t go out easily. So the
hydrostatic pressure is 55 mmHg.

Another thing, in the glomerular set, there is plasma

proteins, similar to the systemic circulation. But if you measure
the osmotic pressure of these plasma proteins in the
glomerular capillaries you will find it is not 28 mmHg as
capillaries. It is 30 mmHg. So it is more. Why it is more? Even
we know that the plasma protein concentration is normal,
whether it’s in the kidney or in the capillaries. It is more
because in this place ( in the glomerulus) we have a huge
amount of water filtration. It goes down to the tubules. When
we lose the water, we increase the concentration. That’s
common sense. So the oncotic pressure of the plasma protein
in the glomerulus is 55 mmHg.

The 3rd difference between the capillaries in the systemic

circulation and the capillaries of the glomerulus is the
permeability. If you study the structure of the capillaries in the
glomerulus, in some text book they say it’s 500 times more
permeable than systemic circulation. Other book, they mention
about 200 times. The idea is; they are more permeable than
the systemic circulations. So their structure, in a way, helps to
get rid of the plasma easily when they flow inside the
glomerulus.

Now, this is the schematic structure of the nephron.

Another important fact is if you take one nephron alone, with
the blood circulation, it will continue forming urine as a normal
kidney. So the function of the kidney is the some of the product
of each nephron. So in other words; nephron works
independently. Now this structure of nephron, this is the
glomerulus, the capillaries inside, afferent, efferent, then
Bowman’s capsule, proximal tubule. Start with loop of henle,
down then the descending end of loop of henle, then the distal
tubule, look at the distal tubule. It goes back to the cortex, but
it will go between afferent and efferent arteriole. Distal tubule
of each nephron, when it goes back through the cortex, it will
go through the afferent and the efferent arterioles. So afferent
and efferent arterioles are like hugging the distal tubule. This
structure of touching, it will form special apparatus, which is
here a little bit dash green line, this part of the nephron is
called juxtaglomerular apparatus. I don’t know why in your
textbook they didn’t expain it in detail but it’s important.
Juxtaglomerular apparatus.

Now, since we finished with the physiological anatomy of

the nephrone, we will start talking about the function of each
nephron. First function of the renal system is filtration of
plasma. We want to filter the plasma. Where? In the
glomerulus. To where? To the Bowman’s capsule. So the
plasma should leave the vascular system; which is a part of
them, from this glomerular capillary to go out, in order to reach
the tubular system. If it wants to do so, the plasma should cross
the epithelial cell of the glomerular capillaries. Then it will cross
the basement membrane between the capillaries and tubular
system. After that, it should cross the epithethileal cells of the
Bowman’s capsule. Then it will go down to the Bowman’s
capsule inside the tubule.

So this is the glomerular membrane trough which the

blood plasma should cross. And it’s easy to cross it because we
said the capillaries very permeable and also, the epithelial cells
of the Bowman’s capsule; they have slids like the podocyte
cells. Between them, there are a lot of spaces through which
the plasma can cross.
 This is the capillary. Here is the plasma. You see these
small holes or pores, these are capillary pore. There are
millions. So, it’s easy for the plasma to go through them. But
when they (plasma) go through them, they will face this whitish
colour basement membrane. And there are some structure of
special proteins which help the plasma to go through it.

After that, these brownish are the epithelial cell of the

Bowman’s capsule. In between, there is no tight junction as you
see. It is open channels. So the plasma should go through from
here (capillary) to here (Bowman’s capsule) and it is easy. And
if you look to this structure, this is the plasma coming in, should
cross the membrane, to the tubular system. Now, in order to
cross that and we mentioned the name of that filtration. It’s
not diffusion. It’s the same as the filtration of capillaries in the
body fluid. But the mechanism is different. Why different?
Because if you look back to the forces in here, you will have the
hydrostatic pressure inside capillary and we said its 55mmHg,
you will have the oncotic plasma protein osmotic pressure
inside the capillary which is 30mmHg and inside Bowman’s
capsule; because it is a capsule, it is full of fluid. This filling fluid
will create a hydrostatic pressure. The hydrostatic pressure
inside the Bowman’s capsule equal to
15mmHg.
 Now, just to illustrate how the permeability in the
glomerular capillaries, look to this.
This is the way; the plasma
will leave the capillary, to
the Bowman’s capsule.
Inside the glomerulus, we
have 55mmHg of
hydroststatic pressure of
plasma. This hydrostatic
pressure pushes the
plasma out. Because it’s in
the gross compartment
with 55mmHg, so it will
push the plasma out, by a
force equal to 55mmHg.

We have millions of
pores, so the plasma will
go down. Now, the oncotic
pressure, it is 30mmHg
here. Remember, the
plasma protein will not
leave the glomerulus.
These pores, even there are millions, but they are not large
enough to let the protein out, with normal condition. Because
they are inside the capillary, they will create osmosis. So they
will not allow the plasma to go out. They will start to do suction
for the plasma. So the direction of this force is opposing the
direction of hydrostatic pressure. It’s the same discussion
before in the capillaries. So it should be like a piece of cake to
understand.

Now we have 55mmHg pushing the plasma to the tubular

system. We have against it 30mmHg. With the plasma goes
inside the Bowman’s capsule, and there is fluid inside the
capsule, this fluid inside the capsule create a hydrostatic
pressure equal to 15mmHg. So it doesn’t allow the plasma to
get easily inside the capsule. If I have an empty capsule, it will
be easy to get through it with water, but if I have a fluid
capsule, it will not be easy. I have to overcome the hydrostatic
pressure created inside the capsule.
 So we have 30mmHg against, 15mmHg against, and
55mmHg with the plasma filtration. The net filtration pressure
is equal to 10mmHg. This is the normal net filtration pressure in
the nephron, in the kidneys. Now, since we have 10mmHg and
we have good permeability, a huge number of holes, and pores
and filters in the podocytes, of the Bowman’s capsule, the
plasma will leave the capillaries to the Bowman’s capsule. How
much? Equivalent to the 10mmHg. What’s the equivalent of
that? If you measure, the amount of plasma leaving the
capillaries, in the glomerulus, to the Bowman’s capsule each
minute, you will get this number; 125ml of plasma each
minute. Listen to that number carefully.

You are sitting now, all of you, in your kidneys, each

minute, whether you’re drinking water or you don’t. Each
minute, there is 125 ml of plasma leaving the glomerulus to the
Bowman’s capsule. Let’s calculate in each hour. Times 125 ml
with 60. This will be how many ml per hour. Let’s calculate that
because during sleeping, your kidneys are functioning. They
don’t stop. Let’s calculate how many ml you will filter a day.
This number will be 180L of plasma filtered in your nephrons
each day. Let’s go back to our knowledge. What’s the volume
of plasma? What’s the real volume of blood? 5 to 6L. Let’s say
5L. the plasma is 45% of it so about 2.5L+. It is about 3L of
plasma. Now every day, 180L of plasma will be filtered. So how
many times, the plasma will be filtered? It is about 65 times.
Why I mentioned that (?) It’s because I want you to imagine
even our kidneys are small as our hand, two of them. But they
are efficient to clean our plasma 65 times per day. Like a
washing machine. The more you wash thing, the more they’ll
be clean. They are not able to take it at once, and clean it and
take it back. They do it gradually, but they do it efficient
because they do it 65 times per day. This is the efficiency of
the kidney to clean plasma but imagine; if we lose our plasma
65 times a day, what happens to our vascular system?

In this case, god gave us another function to the renal

system. Not only the filtration. Filtration is the first step. The 2nd
step is reabsorbtion. We filter 180L per day and we get back,
178.5L per day. So what’s that remains are the 1.5 litre which
is the urine output. Every day, under normal condition, we lose
only 1.5L of urine. But we clean, 180L of plasma portion by
portion from the total volume of plasma which is 3L. Now we
start to imagine the efficiency of the renal system.

Now, the amount of plasma filtered in the glomerulus per

minute is called Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR). And it is
125ml per minute. If for any reason, we need more filtration,
there is a mechanism to do so. If there is any situation we want
to decrease the GFR, there is a mechanism to do so. How’s that
(?) It’s so simple. You remember the glomerulus, you remember
the afferent arteriole and efferent arteriole. We said that
afferent is dilated, efferent is constricted. By doing so, we will
have 55 mmHg hydrostatic pressure of the glomerular capillary.

Now, if we want to decrease the GFR, we want to save the

plasma. So what happened, the afferent arteriole will be
constricted, efferent arteriole will be dilated. By doing so, you
will decrease the blood flow inside the glomerulus. By
decreasing the blood flow inside the glomerulus, you will
decrease the hydrostatic pressure. And you will let the blood
outside the glomerulus easier because there is a dilatation of
efferent arteriole. Because of that, you will not have 55mmHg
of hydrostatic pressure, but maybe 50, 52 @ 53. But when we
have such hydrostatic pressure, the oncotic pressure is still the
same; the Bowman’s capsule’s pressure is still the same, so the
net filtration pressure will not be 10mmHg. It will be less.
Instead of 55 – 45, we will have 53 – 45. So it is about 8 or
7mmHg. By decreasing the net filtration pressure, the GFR, the
rate of filtration will be less and thus you decrease the GFR.

The

opposite is possible. If we want to increase the GFR, we want to

increase the loss of plasma. In this case, we will have more
dilatation of the afferent arteriole and more constriction of the
efferent arteriole. By doing so, you will increase the blood flow
inside the glomerulus and you will decrease the outflow of
blood, so you will increase the hydrostatic pressure inside the
glomerulus. Instead of 55mmHg, you might have 56 or 57 or
58. The oncotic is still the same, capsular still the same, so the
net filtration pressure will be more than 10mmHg and that will
increase the filtration rate in the glomerulus. This mechanism is
controlled by sympathetic nervous system and other system
like Juxtaglomerular apparatus.
These are the mechanism where you vasoconstrict the efferent
arteriole, where you dilate the afferent. And you should
remember when we are talking about the sympathetic nervous
system, the efficiency for dilatation or constriction for the

afferent arteriole is more than the efferent arteriole. So the

level by which they affect the constriction or dilatation mainly
to the afferent arteriole, not the efferent. And this is important.

Now, this is
another system where
it summarizes what’s
the homeostatic
function in our body, if
the arterial blood
pressure is decreased,
if the blood pressure is
below normal; what
the system does?
What the human body
does in order to return
back to the normal
blood pressure. First of
all, when you
decrease the blood pressure, there are special receptors to
sense that. There are in the aorta and the carotid sinuses. It is
similar to those in the respiratory body. You remember the
peripheral chemical control, it is similar, but they sense the low
blood pressure. Those they sense the very low oxygen, below
60, they slightly (they sense) carbon dioxide.

Let’s talk about this thing. Now, when they sense the low
blood pressure, they will stimulate sympathetic nervous
system. Activation of this system, it will go in this direction in
short term (not in long term). This one, and this one. This will
cause an increase in cardiac output, more pumping of the
heart. It will increase the blood volume coming out, and that
will increase the blood pressure. Also at the same time, when
the sympathetic nervous system is activated; this cause total
peripheral resistance, spasm of arterioles. And you should
know, when you do a spasm, you’ll increase the blood pressure.
And that will change the arterial blood pressure towards
normal. This is in short term.
In long term, when we have a spasm of arterioles, the
most important one in the kidney is the afferent one. Efferent is
not important for sympathetic nervous system, as I mentioned.
So in the afferent, it will cause vasoconstriction.
Vasoconstriction will decrease the glomerular capillary blood
pressure, the hydrostatic pressure; the 55mmHg will go down.
That will cause a decrease in GFR. Decease in GFR will
decrease the urine output. Instead of losing 1.5L of urine, you
might lose half litre of urine. So you saved one litre of plasma.
This one litre will go back to the plasma and it will increase the
blood volume and finally it will adjust the blood pressure in your
system.

Now, the cardiac output. Normally our heart pumps bloos

ouside to the whole body. The amount of blood pumping per
minute is equal to almost 7 litres. 6L, 7 or 5, different in males
and females. This 6L of blood each minute goes to different
direction. Portion of that 6L will go to the brain, another portion
to the liver, 3rd portion to the intestine, 4th to the muscle, 5th to
the skin, and portion of that, it will go to the kidneys. Now, if
you go back to the systems I’ve mentioned, and I ask you,
which system will take the most blood (?) It’s easy to answer.
The gastrointestinal system (GI) is the winner. They will take a
huge amount of blood under normal condition. But if the person
is exercising, the muscles will take a huge amount from the 6L
(blood). This kind of distribution is because of physiology. We
want to get more blood to the area mostly needed.

Now the brain will take a fixed amount of blood, no matter

what happen to our physiological body. Brain always takes the
exact amount of blood needed for this important system
(nervous system). Now if you go to the skin, they don’t take too
much blood because it’s not needed. Now let’s take the kidney;
small 150g to the right and 150g to the left. A total of 300g,
they don’t need much blood at all. But if you measure the
amount of blood going there, it is almost ¼ of the cardiac
output. Why? The answer is there. They don’t need the blood to
be feeded, they need the blood to clean it for us. So ¼ of the
blood will go to the kidneys for cleaning, not for feeding. And
this ¼ or 1/5th; 22 to 25%, it is about 1140ml of blood per
minute. Now that blood is blood cells and plasma. Here, they
consider the hematocrytes is 45, so 45% is blood cells and 55%
is plasma. If you want to calculate how many ml if plasma
getting inside the kidney, you have to take this number
(1140ml) times 55%. You’ll get about 625 ml of plasma each
minute, getting inside our kidney.

Few minute ago, I told you each minute, we filter in the

glomerulus 125ml of filtrate. So how much plasma will be
filtered? It is about 25%. So ¼ of the plasma will be filtered. Ok,
huge amount of the plasma will be filtered. Now what’s the
remaining, the blood plasma which is not filtered, where did
they go? Now, we have.. let’s take 100ml of plasma just to
make it understandable. 100ml of plasma will go through the
afferent arteriole to the glomerular capillary; 25ml of them will
be filtered at the Bowman’s capsule. The remaining 75ml will
go out through the efferent arteriole, and they will follow the
peritubular capillaries. So they will go back, around the tubules
but in other area, not in the glomerulus.
And this part will be our talk in the next lecture.
Sorry for any mistakes
All the best!

Done by; Farah Hanisah