Nephron

The kidney contains thousands of nephrons, as blood passes through them the follow happens:

Ultrafiltration.

Blood flows into the glomerulus via the renal artery, the glomerulus is a bundle of capillaries at the start of the nephron.

High pressure builds up and squeezes, water, urea, salt and glucose, out of the blood and into the Bowman's capsule.

The membranes between the glomerulus and bowman's act as a filter, the filter only allowing small molecules through, larger molecules such as proteins and blood cells stay in the blood.

What is left in the bowman's capsule, is a filtered liquid known as glomerular filtrate.

	Created by lingox over 10 years ago

IGCSE Biology Paper 1B Note on The kidneys - Excretion, created by lingox on 07/05/2014.

The kidneys - Excretion