Urinary System Functions and Anatomy

Waste products accumulate in the blood, are toxic, and must be removed to maintain homeostasis.

Homeostasis, excretion, endocrine function, and metabolic function.

Kidneys are located retroperitoneally, bean-shaped structures extending from T12-L3. The right kidney is slightly lower than the left.

The renal sinus is a large space within the medial part of the kidney opening to the exterior through the renal hilum.

Dense connective tissue that maintains the kidney's shape and forms an infection barrier.

Homeostasis (regulation), excretion, endocrine function, and metabolic function.

An outer lighter region and an inner, darker red-brown region.

The structural and functional units of the kidney that produce urine.

A filtering component of the nephron, where blood plasma is filtered.

A cup-shaped capsule that encloses the glomerulus of the nephron.

The different microscopic layers that separate the blood from the capsular space

The actual filter that lies between the blood and the interior of the glomerular capsule

Proximal convoluted tubule, loop of Henle, distal convoluted tubule, and collecting duct.

Confined entirely to the renal cortex, is most active in reabsorption and secretion

Descending segment(permeable to water but not solutes) and Ascending segment(permeable to Na+ not water)

Located in cortex; responsible for selective secretion and reabsorption of ions.

Located in the cortex; make up 85% of the nephrons, mainly in humans

Located near the junction of cortex and medulla, and make up 15% of nephrons; Involved in the concentration of urine

Structure that functions in the regulation of blood pressure, is an area of specialized contact between the terminal end of the thick ascending limb of the nephron loop and the afferent arteriole

Carry urine from the kidneys to the urinary bladder; about 25 cm (10 inches) long.

A mucosa, muscularis, and adventitia

transitional epithelium that stretches when the ureters fill with urine

Consists of two layers: an inner longitudinal layer and an outer circular layer of smooth muscle

Stores and expels urine, lies inferior to the peritoneal cavity on the pelvic floor, just posterior to the pubic symphysis

Has upside-down pyramid with four triangular surfaces/corners/angles

A thickening of the detrusor muscle forms the internal urethral sphincter

A thin-walled tube that drains urine from the bladder and conveys it out of the body

pons (but heavily influenced by higher centers)

Voiding, Urinating or emptying the bladder

arteries supplying the bladder are branches of the internal iliac arteries, primarily the superior and inferior vesical arteries