INGLES MEDICO II_CLASE 6

VOCABULARY OF URINARY SYSTEM

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Urinary system: set of organs producing urine in human beings, comprised chiefly of the
kidneys, ureters, bladder and urethra.

Left suprarenal gland: cap covering the upper part of the left kidney.

Common iliac vein: vein carrying un-oxygenated blood from the limbs and lower organs to the
heart.

Celiac trunk: branching of the aorta feeding the abdominal viscera.

Left kidney: left blood-purifying organ.

Left renal vein: vein connecting the left kidney and the inferior vena cava.

Abdominal aorta: part of the aorta feeding the organs of the abdomen.

Urethra: small tube through which a human being expels liquid waste.

Urinary bladder: pocket in which urine collects.

Iliac vein and artery: blood vessels in the flank region.

Ureter: tube carrying urine from the kidney to the bladder.

Renal pelvis: part of the kidney situated at the junction of the calyces and leading to the ureter.

Malpighi's pyramid: glomerulus’s of the kidney.

Calyx: excretory cavity in the pelvis of a kidney.

Medulla: matter forming the central part of a kidney.

Cortex: matter of the cortex of the suprarenal gland.

Section of the right kidney: graphic representation of the interior of the right blood-purifying
organ.

Section of the right suprarenal gland: graphic representation of the interior of the suprarenal
gland.

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 URINARY SYSTEM

HOMEOSTASIS, EXCRETION, AND THE URINARY SYSTEM

Homeostasis

The cells of the body are bathed in a liquid called tissue fluid. This fluid comes from the blood; it
supplies cells with food and oxygen and removes their waste products. Tissue fluid forms the
environment in which cells live or, put another way; it forms the internal environment of the body.

A number of organs are constantly adjusting the temperature and contents of tissue fluid so that
it is always as near perfect an environment as possible for the health, growth, and efficient
functioning of cells. The organs which perform this task are said to be involved in homeostasis,
or “the maintenance of a constant internal environment”.

Organs concerned with homeostasis

The main organs of homeostasis are the lungs, skin, liver, and kidneys.

Lungs control the amount of carbon dioxide and oxygen in tissue fluid. They do this by removing
carbon dioxide as fast as it is produced by respiration in cells, and by supplying cells with oxygen
as fast as they use it.

The skin helps maintain the internal environment of the body at about 37°C. It does this by means
of sweat glands, and other mechanisms.

The liver and pancreas work together, to maintain within precise limits the amount of glucose
sugar in blood and tissue fluid. The liver also maintains amino acids and proteins at a constant
level by breaking down any excess in process called deamination, one product of deamination is
a waste substance called urea, which is removed from the body by the kidneys.

Removal from the body of carbon dioxide by the lungs and urea by the kidneys are examples of
excretion.

Excretion

Excretion is an extremely important part of homeostasis because it removes waste substances

produced by the chemical reactions of metabolism, and substances which are excess to the
body’s requirements. If these substances were not removed; they would poison cells or slow down
metabolism. The main organs of excretion are the lungs and the kidneys.

If carbon dioxide were not excreted by the lungs, it would accumulate in the body and form
carbonic acid in quantities which would damage cells.

Water is an example of a substance which is often present in the body in excess of requirements.
If, for instance, someone drinks more liquid than the body requires, the excess would dilute the
blood and tissue fluid to a dangerous level if it were not excreted by the kidneys.

The most important type of excretion is the removal by the kidneys of substances produced by
the deamination of excess amino acids. Deamination involves the production of ammonia.
Ammonia is very poisonous, but the liver immediately converts it into harmless urea, and releases

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it into the blood. Kidneys extract urea from the blood and excrete it as part of liquid called urine.
Ammonia and urea contain nitrogen; therefore their removal from the body by the kidneys is called
nitrogenous excretion. The kidneys are part of a set of organs called the urinary system.

The urinary system

Human kidneys are about 12 cm long by 7 cm wide, and are bean-shaped. A thin tube, the ureter,
comes out of the concave side of each kidney and extends downwards to a single large bag called
the bladder. The bladder has only one exit, a tube called the urethra, which leads to the body
surface. The bladder end of the urethra is normally closed by means of rings of muscle
(sphincters), which control the release of urine from the bladder.

Urine drains continuously out of the kidneys into the ureters, where it is forced downwards into
the bladder by wave-like contractions of the ureter walls. The bladder stretches and expands in
volume as it fills with urine, and when it is nearly full the stretching stimulates sensory nerve
endings in its walls so that nerve impulses are sent to the brain. This is how you know when your
bladder must be emptied. The sphincter muscles around the urethra are then voluntarily
(consciously) relaxed to let urine drain from the bladder, through the urethra, and out of the body.
This is called urination or, in technical terms, micturition.

EXCRETION BY THE KIDNEYS

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Each kidney receives blood at very high pressure through a renal artery. Inside the kidney this
artery divides into capillaries with little loss of blood pressure. The capillaries carry blood to tiny
cup-shaped structures called Bowman´s capsules. Each Bowman´s capsule is the beginning of a
length of narrow tube 3 cm long called nephrons in each kidney, and their function is to produce
urine.

Formation of urine

The capillary inside each Bowman´s capsule divides into a tiny ball of inter- twined blood vessels
called a glomerulus. Blood pressure in a glomerulus is so high that liquid is forced out through the
capillary walls into the space inside the Bowman´s capsule. This liquid is called glomerular filtrate,
because it is formed by liquid from the blood filtering through capillary walls and the inner walls
of the Bowman´s capsules.

About 7-5 litres of glomerular filtrate are produced every hour. It contains urea to be excreted but,
in addition, there are many useful substances in it such as glucose, amino acids, mineral salts,
vitamins, and large amounts of water, which the body cannot afford to lose. The body does not
lose these useful substances because they are reabsorbed into the bloodstream.

Reabsorption

Glomerular filtrate flows out of the Bowman´s capsules into the tubular part of each nephron. It is
here that reabsorption occurs. The walls of a nephron extract useful substances (glucose, etc.)
from glomerular filtrate and pass them into blood flowing through capillaries surrounding the
nephron. Removal of useful substances changes glomerular filtrate into urine. Normally, urine is
made up of urea and small amounts of mineral salts dissolved in water. Urine drains out of the
nephrons into collecting ducts, and then into ureters and out of the body.

Osmoregulation

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Reabsorption does not merely save useful substances in danger of being lost from the body. It is
also a means of regulating the amount of water and dissolved materials in blood and tissue fluid.
The technical name for this process is osmoregulation, because it regulates the flow of water by
osmosis between cells and the blood.

After a large meal, for example, or in a person suffering from diabetes, the amount of sugar in the
blood begins to rise. At such a time the kidneys do not reabsorb all the glucose from glomerular
filtrate, and so the excess passes out of the body in urine.

If large amounts of liquid are drunk the water content of the blood rises. Less water is then
reabsorbed by the kidneys, and large amounts of dilute urine are produced. But if the body
contains too little water the kidneys reabsorb a maximum amount from glomerular filtrate, leaving
a small quantity of very concentrated urine. In hot weather the same process ensures that plenty
of water is available for cooling the body by perspiration from the sweat glands.