Untitled Quiz

Study Notes

Renal veins exit from the kidneys and empty into the inferior vena cava, with the left renal vein being about twice as long as the right.
The renal plexus provides the nerve supply of the kidney and its ureter.
Sympathetic vasomotor fibers regulate renal blood flow by adjusting the diameter of renal arterioles and influence the formation of urine by the nephron.

Nephrons are the structural and functional units of the kidneys.
Each kidney contains over one million nephrons, which carry out the processes that form urine.
Each nephron consists of a renal corpuscle and a renal tubule.
The renal corpuscles are located in the renal cortex, while the renal tubules begin in the cortex and then pass into the medulla before returning to the cortex.

Each renal corpuscle consists of a tuft of capillaries called a glomerulus and a cup-shaped hollow structure called the glomerular capsule (or Bowman's capsule).
The glomerular capsule completely surrounds the glomerulus and is continuous with its renal tubule.
The endothelium of the glomerular capillaries is fenestrated, making these capillaries exceptionally porous.

The sympathetic nervous system controls neural renal controls, which serve the needs of the body as a whole.
When the volume of the extracellular fluid is normal, the renal blood vessels are dilated, and renal autoregulation mechanisms prevail.
When the extracellular fluid volume is extremely low, neural controls may override autoregulatory mechanisms, reducing renal blood flow to the point of damaging the kidneys.

The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone mechanism is the body's main mechanism for increasing blood pressure.
Low blood pressure causes the granular cells of the juxtaglomerular complex to release renin.

Tubular reabsorption is a selective transepithelial process that begins as soon as the filtrate enters the proximal tubules.
Virtually all organic nutrients such as glucose and amino acids are completely reabsorbed to maintain or restore normal plasma concentrations.

The renal fascia, an outer layer of dense fibrous connective tissue, anchors the kidney and the adrenal gland to surrounding structures.
The perirenal fat capsule, a fatty mass, surrounds the kidney and cushions it against blows.
The fibrous capsule, a transparent capsule, prevents infections in surrounding regions from spreading to the kidney.
A frontal section through a kidney reveals three distinct regions: cortex, medulla, and pelvis.
The calyces collect urine, which drains continuously from the papillae, and empty it into the renal pelvis.
The urine then flows through the renal pelvis and into the ureter, which moves it to the bladder to be stored.
The walls of the calyces, pelvis, and ureter contain smooth muscle that contracts rhythmically to propel urine by peristalsis.