User:WillowW/Kidney notes

I have got to start working on this, if I'm going to spruce up "Loop of Henle" by September 1st.

The kidney has several functions. Most importantly, it is responsible for maintaining the balance of water and osmolytes in the body. It also serves other roles, such as contributing to the maturation of calciferol.

The kangaroo rat provides an excellent example of kidney function in mammals. The kangaroo rat lives for months at a time eating only seeds and drinking no water. Therefore, the meager amount of water in its food suffices to balance the inevitable losses to water in its respiration.

Process of ultrafiltration; applied versus osmotic pressure; glomerulus; size cutoff for proteins?

Process of selective reabsorption

counter-current flow; correlation of loop length and water conservation

arrangement of the nephra within the human kidney; compare with other vertebrates

Need for osmotic regulation to prevent cell bursting; but the individual osmolytes need not be the same; discrepancies in concentrations (Table)

End products of metabolism; nitrogenous wastes; urea, uric acid; ammonia?