Urinary system
Prepared by
Humaira Sadia
Lecturer, PHN Department
Primeasia University
Q: What does urinary system do?
A: The urinary system filters nitrogenous wastes from the blood and helps
to regulate water, electrolyte, and acid-base balances.
Q: how?
A: The kidneys filter blood in nephrons and secrete or reabsorb electrolytes
under the direction of hormones.
Q: Why urinary system do the filtration?
A: The kidneys are directly involved in maintaining proper blood pressure which is
essential for delivering oxygen and nutrients to tissues.
Introduction:
• The kidneys, which maintain the purity and constancy of our internal fluids, are perfect
examples of homeostatic organs.
• Like sanitation workers who keep a city’s water supply drinkable and dispose of its waste, the
kidneys do the same.
• Every day, the kidneys filter gallons of fluid from the bloodstream.
• They then process this filtrate, allowing wastes and excess ions to leave the body in urine
while returning needed substances to the blood in just the right proportions.
• Although the lungs and the skin also play roles in excretion, the kidneys bear the major
responsibility for eliminating nitrogenous (nitrogen containing) wastes, toxins, and drugs
from the body.
• Besides this excretory functions, the kidneys also regulate blood volume and maintain the
proper balance between water and salts, and between acids and bases.
The kidneys have other regulatory functions, too:
• By producing the enzyme renin, they help regulate blood pressure.
• The hormone erythropoietin, released by the kidneys, stimulates red blood cell
production in bone
marrow
• Kidney cells convert vitamin D to its active form.
Urethra
provide temporary
storage
for urine or serve as
transportation channels to Other organs
carry it from the kidneys to Of urinary
the outside of the body. system
Fig: Anterior view of urinary organs of a female
Kidney:
Location and Structure
The kidneys are bean-shaped organs located against the back muscles in the upper
abdominal area. They sit opposite each other on both the left and right side of the body; the
right kidney, sits a little lower than the left to accommodate the size of the liver.
• An adult kidney is about 12 cm (5 inches) long, 6 cm (2.5 inches) wide, and 3 cm (1 inch)
thick, or about
the size of a large bar of soap.
• It is convex laterally and has angular cut in an edge (indentation) called the renal hilum.
• Several structures, including the ureters, the renal blood vessels, and nerves, enter or exit the
kidney at
Sitting atop each kidney is an adrenal gland,
the hilum. which is
part of the endocrine system and is a separate
organ.
Three layers of kidney:
The kidney has three protective layers. Deep to
superficial, they are as follows:
• A transparent fibrous capsule encloses
each
kidney and gives it a glistening appearance.
• A fatty mass, the perirenal fat capsule,
surrounds
each kidney and cushions it.
• The renal fascia, the most superficial layer
made of dense fibrous connective tissue,
anchors the kidney and adrenal gland to
surrounding structures.
The fat surrounding the kidneys is important in holding them in their normal body position. If
the amount of fatty tissue dwindles (as with rapid weight loss), the kidneys may drop to a
lower position, a condition called ptosis. Ptosis
creates problems if the ureters, which drain urine from the kidneys, become kinked. When this
happens, urine that can no longer pass through the ureters backs up and exerts pressure on
the kidney tissue.
This condition, called hydronephrosis can severely damage the kidney.
When a kidney is cut lengthwise, three distinct regions
become apparent-
The outer region, which is light in color, is the
renal
cortex. Deep to the cortex is a darker reddish-
brown area, the renal medulla. The medulla
has triangular regions with a striped
appearance, the renal pyramids, or medullary
pyramids. The pyramids are separated by
extensions of cortex like tissue, called renal
columns.
Lateral to the hilum is a flat, funnel-shaped tube,
the renal pelvis. The pelvis is continuous with the
ureter leaving the hilum.
Extensions of the pelvis, calyces form cup-shaped
“drains” that enclose the tips of the pyramids.
The calyces collect urine, which continuously
drains from the tips of the pyramids into the
renal pelvis.
Q: Describe blood supply through the kidney by showing the pathway of renal blood vessels.
The kidneys continuously cleanse the blood and adjust its composition, so it is not surprising that they
have a rich blood supply. Approximately one-quarter of the total blood supply of the body
passes through the kidneys each minute.
The artery supplying each kidney is the renal artery. As the renal artery approaches the hilum, it divides
into segmental arteries, each of which gives off several branches called interlobar arteries, which
travel through the renal columns to reach the cortex.
At the cortex-medulla junction, interlobar arteries give off the arcuate arteries, which arch over the
medullary pyramids. Small cortical radiate arteries then branch off the arcuate arteries to supply the
renal cortex.
Venous blood draining from the kidney flows through veins that trace the pathway of the arterial supply
but in a reverse direction—
cortical radiate veins to arcuate veins to interlobar veins to the renal vein, which emerges
from
the kidney hilum and empties into the inferior vena
cava. (There are no segmental veins).
Nephrons
• Nephrons are the structural and functional units of the kidneys and are responsible for forming urine.
• Each kidney contains over a million nephrons (tiny filters).
• Thousands of collecting ducts, each of which collects fluid from several nephrons and conveys it to the
renal pelvis.
Each nephron consists of two main structures: a renal corpuscle and a
renal tubule.
Each renal corpuscle consists of a glomerulus,
which is a knot of capillaries and a cup-shaped hollow
structure that completely surrounds the glomerulus
like a well-worn baseball glove encloses a ball. This
portion of the renal corpuscle is called the
glomerular capsule or Bowman’s capsule.
The inner layer of the capsule is made up of highly
modified octopus-like cells called podocytes.
Podocytes have long branching extensions called foot
processes that intertwine with one another and cling to the
glomerulus.
The renal tubule, which makes up the rest
of the nephron, is about 3 cm long.
As it extends from the glomerular capsule, it coils and
twists before forming a hairpin loop and then again
becomes coiled and twisted before entering a collecting
duct.
These different regions of the tubule have specific
names in order from the glomerular capsule, they are-
• the proximal convoluted tubule (PCT); the
nephron loop,
or loop of Henle
• the distal convoluted tubule (DCT).
The surfaces of the tubule cells exposed to the filtrate
in the
proximal convoluted tubules are covered with
dense
microvilli, which increases their surface area
tremendously.
Most nephrons are called cortical nephrons
because they are located almost entirely within the
cortex.
In a few cases, the nephrons are called
juxtamedullary nephrons because they are
situated close to the cortex-medulla junction, and
their nephron loops dip deep into the medulla .
Q. How many types of nephrons exist depending on location? / classify nephrons based on the location.
Urine formation
Urine formation is a result of three processes—
glomerular filtration, tubular reabsorption,
and
tubular secretion
Q. Diagrammatically explain the sites/regions
of nephron where filtration, reabsorption
and secretion possess active and passive transport
system.
Or,
Q. Diagrammatically explain That filtration, reabsorption
and secretion processes are involved with Active and passive
Transport system.
Glomerular filtration is a nonselective,
passive
process in which fluid passes from the
blood into
the glomerular capsule part of the renal
tubule.
Filtrate
Besides wastes and excess
ions the filtrate contains
many
useful substances (including
water, glucose, amino
acids, and ions), which must
be returned to the blood.
Tubular reabsorption begins
as soon as the filtrate enters
the proximal convoluted
tubule
The tubule cells are “transporters”. They
take
up needed substances from the filtrate
and then passing them out into the
extracellular space.
Some reabsorption is done
passively (for example, water
passes by osmosis),
but reabsorption of most
substances
depends on active transport
processes, which use-
a. membrane carriers,
b. require ATP, and
c. Very selective.
Needed substances (for example,
glucose and amino acids) are
usually entirely removed from the
filtrate.
Tubular secretion is essentially tubular
reabsorption in reverse.
Some substances, such as hydrogen
and potassium ions (H+ and K+) and
creatinine,
also move from the blood of the peritubular
capillaries into the filtrate to be eliminated in
urine.
Ureters, Urinary Bladder and Urethra
Ureters
• The ureters are two slender tubes each 25 to 30 cm long and 6 mm in diameter.
• Each ureter runs behind the peritoneum from the renal hilum to the bladder.
• The superior end of each ureter is continuous with the renal pelvis, and
• its mucosal lining is continuous with the mucosa lining the renal pelvis and the bladder inferiorly.
• Once urine has entered the bladder, it is prevented from flowing back into the ureters by small
valve like
folds of bladder mucosa that cover the ureter openings.
Urinary Bladder
• The urinary bladder is a smooth, collapsible, muscular sac that stores urine temporarily.
• It is located retroperitoneally in the pelvis just posterior to the pubic symphysis.
• A scan of the interior of the bladder reveals three openings—the two ureter openings (ureteral
orifices), and the single opening of the urethra (the internal urethral orifice),
• The bladder wall contains three layers of smooth muscle, collectively called the detrusor
muscle, and its mucosa is a special type of epithelium, transitional epithelium
• When the bladder is empty, it is collapsed, 5 to 7.5 cm (2 to 3 inches) long, and its walls are
thick and thrown into folds
• A moderately full bladder is about 12.5 cm (5 inches) long and holds about 500 ml of urine.
Collapsible- able to be folded into a small space
Retroperitoneal- behind the peritoneum
Pubic symphysis is a secondary cartilaginous joint located between the left
and right pubic bones near the midline of the body.
Urethra
• The urethra is a thin-walled tube that carries urine by peristalsis from the bladder to the outside
of the body.
• At the bladder-urethra junction, a thickening of the smooth muscle forms the internal urethral
sphincter
• This is an involuntary sphincter that keeps the urethra closed when urine is not being passed.
• A second sphincter, the external urethral sphincter, is formed by skeletal muscle. This
sphincter is voluntarily controlled.
The length and relative function of the urethra differ in the two sexes.
In men, the urethra is approximately 20 cm long and has three named regions- the prostatic,
membranous,
spongy (or
penile) urethrae.
In women, the urethra is about 3 to 4 cm long, and its external orifice, or opening, lies anterior
to the vaginal opening.
Q. Regulation of renin-Angiotensin system.
Q. Regulation of sodium ion and water balance is associated blood pressure
maintenance.
Q. Decreasing solute content in renal tubule is a stimulus of blood pressure
regulation.
A rising potassium ion level or a falling sodium ion level in the ECF directly stimulates
the adrenal cells to release aldosterone.
When the cells of the JG apparatus are stimulated by low blood pressure in the
afferent arteriole
or
changes in solute content of the filtrate-
they respond by releasing the enzyme renin into the blood.
Renin initiates the series of reactions that produce angiotensin II.
Angiotensin II in turn acts directly on the blood vessels to cause vasoconstriction.
Angiotensin II also act on the adrenal cortical cells to promote aldosterone release. As
a result, blood volume and blood pressure increase.
Flowchart of mechanisms regulating sodium ion
and water balance to help maintain blood pressure
homeostasis