I Hate Dialysis Message Board
Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: General Discussion => Topic started by: Razman on October 13, 2008, 10:34:17 AM
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The Kidney Tubule I: Urine Production
The kidneys regulate the body fluids, maintaining desirable levels of acids and bases, salts, nutrients and wastes. Each kidney is made up of over a million tiny tubes known as nephrons, or kidney tubules. The tubules act in parallel to filter the blood and produce the urine. As the blood filtrate passes along the tubule, the composition of the fluid is changed in complex ways. In some ways the tubule resembles an industrial processing plant, and the cells lining the walls of the tubule can be thought of as technicians who modify the filtrate as it passes by.
An enormous amount of fluid is filtered through your glomeruli every day--approximately 60 times the total blood plasma in your body! For this reason, a big part of urine production involves removing filtrate for delivery back to the blood. This process, called re-absorption, is highly selective.
Finally, the tubule empties its contents into one of the many collecting ducts. The urine now contains a concentrated solution of whatever the body currently considers to be "wastes." Water continues to be reabsorbed in the collecting duct, so that little water is wasted in the process of excretion (elimination of wastes). Finally, all the urine collects together in the kidney and is passed out through the ureter, and from there to the bladder.
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I had no idea we had those little pinks guys, moving stuff along! :rofl;
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Great Info!
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I want the pink guys outta there, I think they make us itchy.