Chapter 17 Urinary System

1) If the kidneys are fairly medial, what main blood vessels do they attach to?

2) If the respiratory system removes CO2 from the body and the digestive system removes digestive waste, what does the urinary system remove from the body?

Kidneys: -Kidneys are bean-shaped and reddish brown in color. -The two kidneys have their own depression in the abdominal cavity where they are nestled, and their position is called retroperitoneally behind the parietal peritoneum and against the deep muscles of the back.

-The concave curve of each kidney points towards the midline of the body. This medial depression leads to a hollow chamber called the renal sinus. 3) What is the entrance to the renal sinus called? Think back to the same entrance on lymph nodes.

Blood vessels, nerves, lymphatic vessels, and the ureter pass through this entrance. -Inside the renal sinus the ureter expands to form the renal pelvis, a funnelshaped sac. From here the renal pelvis subdivides into a few tubes called major calyces which then subdivide again into minor calyces. -Renal medulla: inner part of the kidney; composed of conical masses of tissue called renal pyramids; appear striated. -Renal cortex: surrounds the renal medulla; dips between the renal pyramids of the medulla and forms renal columns; appears granular in texture because of nephrons, kidney functional units. -The first job of the kidney is to maintain homeostasis through regulation of the composition, volume and pH of extracellular fluid the kidneys do this by removing metabolic waste from the blood, diluting them with H2O and electrolytes, and excreting them in urine. Other jobs of the kidneys include: secrete hormone erythropoietin to control the rate of red blood cell formation; activating vitamin D;

maintaining blood volume and blood pressure by secreting enzyme renin. -The arteries that supply the kidneys with blood arise from the aorta directly and are called renal arteries. These arteries carry about 15-30% of total blood output from the heart at rest. The renal arteries divide as they supply the kidneys, and eventually become afferent arterioles that lead directly to the nephrons. The renal vein collects all venous blood and returns it to the inferior vena cava. -Nephrons: These are the kidney functional units.

Each kidney contains about 1 million nephrons, each of which consists of a renal corpuscle and a renal tubule. -A renal corpuscle is a tangled collection of capillaries called a glomerulus. They filter fluid. -A thin-walled saclike structure called the glomerular capsule surrounds the glomerulus.

-The renal tubule leads from the glomerular capsule and coils tightly.

-This convoluted tubule dips toward the renal pelvis, becoming the loop of Henle. The loop of Henle is where most exchanges for blood and waste products occur. -Distal convoluted tubules from several nephrons merge in the renal cortex to form a collecting duct which is technically not part of the nephron, but the collecting duct keeps enlarging as it passes through the renal medulla and empties into a minor calyx through an opening in a renal papilla (small elevations that project into the renal sinus from its wall). 4) In the next picture, the upper right has been cut off. What is the term that is missing after the renal?

Nephrons get their supply of blood from an afferent arteriole. Filtered blood enters an efferent arteriole instead of a venule efferent arterioles resist blood flow so blood gets backed up into the glomerulus somewhat, increasing pressure in the glomerular capillary. -Juxtaglomerular apparatus:

The distal convoluted tubule passes between and connects to afferenet and efferent arterioles. Where they contact the epithelial cells of the distal tubule are very narrow and packed closely together. The structure they make is called macula densa. In the walls of the arterioles that attach to the glomerulus are enlarged smooth muscle cells called juxtaglomerular cells. With the macula densa, they make up the juxtaglomerular apparatus. Its main function is to regulate the secretion of renin. Urine Formation: -The first step in forming urine is the filtration of plasma by the glomerular capillaries, a process called glomerular filtration. Again, this filtration has A LOT to do with pressure and gradients, and the kidneys are super specialized to do this to an extent the rest of the body capillaries can only dream of. Water and substances like ions, glucose, urea, and uric acid are dissolved and filtered out of the glomerular capillaries into glomerular capsules fenestrae in the walls of the glomerular capillaries make them much more permeable than other capillaries, but they have special cells that prevent plasma proteins from entering the capillaries. The filtrate is very similar to plasma, but the plasma proteins are missing. -Since the pressure inside glomerular capillaries is higher than in other capillaries, hydrostatic pressure forces the filtrate through the capillary walls. If either arteriole (afferent vs. efferent) constricts, the pressure will change. Afferent constriction decreases pressure because less blood is getting to the gomerulus, efferent constriction increases pressure because more blood is staying in the glomerulus and filtration is encouraged. -The filtration rate is usually fairly constant, but changes in the body will change it excess fluids means more filtration, dehydration means less filtration. Signals from the sympathetic nervous system can change the filtration rate in response to changes to blood pressure or blood volume. Renin: secreted by the juxtaglomerular cells for three reasons: 1) afferent arteriole cells sense drop in blood pressure, 2) response to sympathetic situations, and 3) macula densa sense a decrease in Cl-, K+, and Na+; renin reacts with a plasma protein angiotensinogen to

form the enzyme angiotensin 1; converted to angiotensin 2 by an enzyme from the lungs. -Angiotensin 2 stimulates the glomerulus to keep filtrating, thus preventing the loss of essential ions.

-Tubular reabsorption: the process that returns substances from the glomerular filtrate to the blood glucose is present in the filtrate, but not in urine.

The cells in the renal tubules control this process, hence tubular reabsorption.

All substance have to cross the membrane of the tubule to the interstitial fluid and then the membrane of the arteriole active transport. This is a limited active transport because the carries for the molecules are limited, so if there is more glucose than carriers, glucose will be excreted with the urine. Tubular reabsorption occurs mostly in the proximal convoluted portion (left portion of diagram). Na+ ions have to be actively transported, but the negatively charged ions like Cl-, PO4(-3), and HCO3(-) are passively transported with them water is passively transported back to the tubule by osmosis. -Tubular secretion: the process by which substances move from the plasma of the blood back into the renal tubule. Sometimes this means the amount of something excreted in urine exceeds what was actually filtered by the glomerulus right half of above diagram. -A special hormone called ADH greatly affects how much the urine is concentrated, especially Na+ and K+ as well as H2O concentrations. -Urea: by-product of amino acid catabolism; about 50% is excreted in urine normally; if plasma blood volume is low and ADH (antidiuretic hormone from hypothalamus) is released, water and urea are actively reasborped. -Uric acid: product of metabolism of organic bases in nucleic acids; actively transported back into the blood stream, but a small amount is secreted into the renal tubule and excreted in urine. **Fun fact: different animals have different concentrations of urea and uric acid in their urine it depends on where they live and what they eat.** **Another fun fact: fresh water fish are always urinating. Its almost completely water, but they excrete large amounts of urine every day to keep their osmoregulation even salt water fish are the opposite and urinate concentrated urine infrequently.**

Urine Elimination:

-From the kidneys, urine travels through the ureter, a 25 cm tube.

The ureter extends downward and parallels the vertebral column, both ureters from either side meeting medially to join the urinary bladder from underneath. The ureter wall has three layers: inner mucous coat (continuous with ureter and bladder), middle muscular coat (smooth muscle), and outer fibrous coat (connective tissue). The smooth muscles propels the urine in peristaltic waves, and a valve at the entrance to the bladder prevents a backflow of urine in the ureters. -The urinary bladder is an expandable muscular sac just behind the symphysis pubis. The floor of the bladder is called the trigone, named for the three openings. Two are the ureters, one is the urethra. The wall had four layers: inner mucous coat (layered with epithelial cells that change are the bladder fills), second inner layer submucous coat (connective fibers and elastic tissue), third layer muscular coat (smooth muscle groups that make up the detrusor muscle), and the serous coat (parietal peritoneum). The internal urethral sphincter stays closed until pressure in the bladder reaches a certain point and urine rushes into the urethra. -Micturition: urination. Along with the internal urethral sphincter, the external urethral sphincter must relax to allow urine into the urethra. It is composed of voluntary muscle, so you can hold it for a certain amount of time. The bladder can hold up to 600 mL or urine, but the urge to urinate will begin to grow more and more urgent at a volume of about 150 mL. At 600 mL, pain receptors will kick in. During urination, the detrusor muscle contracts to prevent more urine from flowing into the bladder. -Urethra: the tube that gets urine from the bladder to the external environment (aka, the toilet); its wall is lined with mucous cells and smooth muscle fibers. 5) Bacterial infections are very common in the urethra. Who are more susceptible, men or women? Why?