Excretory System

What is excretion? Why it is necessary?

• The removal of nitrogenous wastes from the body along with excess of
water, minerals, salts, pigments, etc. out of the body is called excretion.

• Significance: Amino acids and proteins are not stored in human body like
carbohydrates and fats. So, if they are in excess (more amount) they are
degraded and nitrogen in them is released in the form of ammonia
(deamination). Ammonia is highly toxic to human body, so converted to
less toxic urea and uric acid. Urea and uric acid are expelled out of body
mixed with urine.

• The organs and its physiology which are involved in excretion collectively is
called excretory system.
Excretory system
• The body system which is concerned with continuous removal of the
metabolic waste from our body and retains the proper amount of water,
and regulate the chemical composition of body fluids.

• The components of excretory system includes:

• Kidneys and other organs of urinary system (ureters, urinary bladder & urethra)
• Liver
• Lungs
• Skin

• Kidneys, along with ureter, urinary bladder and urethra build up the urinary system
which facilitates the removal of nitrogenous waste along with excess of water from
the body in the form of urine.
Kidneys
• A pair of kidney are responsible for filtering toxins, wastes, excess
water, and mineral salts out of the bloodstream.

• Kidneys are the organs concerned with osmoregulation and

homeostasis.
Kidneys
• A pair of kidneys are present in human body, located on the dorsal wall of
abdominal cavity, one on either side of vertebral column.

• They are compact, reddish brown, oval or bean shaped structure.

• Each kidney is about 4-5 inches (10 cm) long, 3 inches (6 cm) wide and
about 2 inches (4 cm) thick, weighing about 150 grams in an adult male
and 135 grams in adult female.

• Left kidney is slightly larger than right kidney because of higher degree of
vascularity. And, right kidney is slightly posterior in position due to position
of liver.
• Each kidney is enclosed in a thin, tough, fibrous, white capsule called fascia. It contains
semi-liquid fatty tissue which helps to keep the kidney in position.

• Each kidney has inner concave and outer convex surface. The inner concave surface is
called hilus renalis, through which renal artery, the renal vein, nerves, and the ureters
enter or leave the kidney.

• The kidney of human (and other mammals) are metanephric type.

• (Note: It is a permanent and most developed type of kidney developing by the 10th week in human
embryos from the lower part of the Wolffian duct, and replacing the embryonic structure called
the mesonephros.)

• Adrenal gland is present at the top of each kidney, so also called as suprarenal gland.
Histology of kidney
• In longitudinal section, two regions of kidneys can be observed; the outer
granular darker region is called cortex and the inner light colored striated
region is called medulla.

• Whereas, the medulla is made up of 6-15 wedge-shaped renal pyramids.

The broad base of each pyramid lies towards the cortex and the narrow
end (renal papilla) towards the pelvis.
• Each renal pyramids leads into equal number of minor calyces, which further unite
to form 2-3 major calyces. The major calyces finally unite to form renal pelvis which
looks like a funnel shaped structure.

• Each kidney consists of about one million blood filtering unit called
nephrons or uriniferous tubules.
Cortex
Medulla
Functions of kidneys
• remove waste products from the body
• remove drugs and their metabolites from the body
• balance the body's fluids
• release hormones that regulate blood pressure
• produce an active form of vitamin D that promotes strong, healthy
bones
• control the production of red blood cells
Structure of nephron (uriniferous tubule)
• Nephron is the functional unit of kidney, specialized for the filtration of the
blood, that results in osmoregulation.

• There are about one million nephrons in each kidney.

• Nephron consists of the following parts:

• Bowmans capsule
• Gomerulus
• Proximal convoluted tubule
• Loop of Henle
• Distal convoluted tubule
• Collecting duct
Bowman’s capsule
• Nephron is a long, around 30-55 mm in length,
tubule.
• Its anterior end is closed, expanded, and folded into a
double-walled cuplike structure. This structure is called
Bowman’s capsule (renal corpuscular capsule ).
• The Bowman’s capsule along with the enclosed
glomerulus is called Malpighian body, located in the
cortex of kidney.
• The outer epithelial layer of the Bowman’s capsule is
called parietal layer and inner epithelial layer is
called visceral layer. The space between the two is
called capsular space.
• The parietal layer is made up of squamous epithelial
cells and visceral layer is made up of specialized cells
called podocytes. They have role in glomerular
filtration.
Glomerulus
• It’s a cluster (knot) of around 50 capillaries inside the Bowman’s
capsule.
• Afferent arteriole, branch of renal artery, carry blood to the
glomerulus and efferent arteriole carry blood away from the
glomerulus.
• When the blood is in the glomerulus it gets filtered, i.e. excess water
and waste is filtered.
Proximal convoluted tubule (PCT)
• It is a long and coiled tubule arising from the posterior end of
Bowman’s capsule.
• It is also present in the cortex of kidney.
• Its wall is lined by a single layer of columnar cells bearing microvilli on
the free surface (towards lumen).
Loop of Henle
• Proximal convoluted tubule leads to a U-shaped structure called as
Loop of Henle, which is located in medullar region of kidney.
• It is further divided into descending limb and ascending limb, the two
connected by a U-shaped loop.
• The descending limb is lined by squamous epithelial cells and
ascending limb is lined by cuboidal epithelium.
• It reabsorbs 75% of the water, salts, glucose, and amino acids.
Distal convoluted tubule
• The ascending limb as it reaches to the cortex again, gets coiled and is
called as distal convoluted tubule (DCT).
• It is lined by cuboidal epithelium.
Collecting duct
• These are larger tubes receiving about eight uriniferous tubules
(nephrons).
• Each collecting duct pass into renal medulla and join to each other,
forming larger ducts of Bellini. These run through renal pyramids and
open into calyces which ultimately leads to pelvis.
• The collecting duct are internally lined by ciliated cuboidal and
columnar epithelium in different regions.
Ureters
• Form each kidney, there arises a muscular and tubular structure of
about 25 cm length and 5 mm diameter.
• They are lined with transitional epithelium.
• They carry urine from kidneys and open into the urinary bladder.
Urinary Bladder
• It is a pear-shaped, sac like structure located at pelvic region of
abdominal cavity, for the temporary storage of urine.
• It is thin walled and highly distensible lined with transitional
epithelium. Its wall is provided with detrusor muscles.
• The upper broader part of urinary bladder is called its body and lower
narrower part is called neck.
• The neck region of urinary bladder leads into urethra.
• Urinary bladder can store about 500 ml of urine in maximum in
normal adult person.
Urethra
• It is a highly muscular, thick walled duct that arises from the neck of
urinary bladder.
• It is about 20 cm length in male which acts as a common path for
both urine and spermatozoa (urogenital organ). It opens outside at
the tip of penis.
• However in female, it is far times shorter with length of about 4 cm
only and opens outside through urethral orifice, separate from the
vaginal orifice.
Physiology of urine formation
• The mechanism of urine formation includes following steps:
• Glomerular filtration
• Selective Reabsorption
• Active Secretion or Tubular Secretion
Glomerular filtration
• The filtration of blood occurs in the glomerulus.
• Afferent arteriole brings blood to the glomerulus where it is filtered. Then,
efferent arteriole carry blood away from the glomerulus.
• The diameter of afferent arteriole is more than efferent arteriole. It causes
the increase in hydrostatic pressure which is about 60 mm of Hg. This
increase in hydrostatic pressure results in filtration of blood.
• The filtration of blood is opposed by three forces:
• Osmotic pressure of blood: 30 mm of Hg
• Hydrostatic pressure of fluid present in renal tubule: 10 mm of Hg
• Hydrostatic pressure of fluid present around renal tubule: 10 mm of Hg

• The net filtration pressure is:

NFP = 60 – (30+10+10) mm of Hg = 10 mm of Hg
• Several blood components are separated during glomerular filtration,
like water, glucose, amino acids, vitamin C, hormones, ammonium
salts, pigments, K+, Na+, H+, creatinine, urea, uric acid etc.

• Such filtrate enters the capsular space and collectively called as

glomerular filtrate or nephric filtrate.
Selective Reabsorption
• During glomerular filtration some useful substance are also passed along with
wastes in the glomerular filtrate (nephric filtrate). So, these useful substances
should be reabsorbed. It is called as selective reabsorption.
• For this, the efferent arteriole break down into capillaries around the renal
tubule.
• Most of the reabsorption takes place in proximal convoluted tubule. Materials
essential to body are reabsorbed here, including some water, electrolytes and
organic nutrients (glucose, amino acids). About 60 – 70 % of glomerular filtrate
reach to the loop of nephron.
• Water, sodium and chloride is reabsorbed from the loop of nephron. And, only
15-20% of the original filtrate reach to the distal convoluted tubule.
• More electrolytes, especially sodium is reabsorbed in distal convoluted tubule.
So, the filtrate entering the collecting duct is more dilute.
• And, finally collecting ducts reabsorbs large amount of water (as per body
requirement).
Active Secretion or Tubular secretion
• Some substances not required for the body and foreign material could not be
cleared by filtration because of the less time of glomerular filtration. For eg. drugs
like penicillin, aspirin etc.
• So, they are cleared by secretion from the peritubular capillaries into the
convoluted tubules and excreted from the body in urine.
• Tubular secretion of hydrogen ion (H+) is important in maintaining blood pH.

• The filtrate obtained after completion of above three processes,

glomerular filtration, selective reabsorption and tubular secretion is
urine.
Q. What is glomerular filtration rate?
Ans: The total volume of filtrate formed by both kidneys each minute is
called glomerular filtration rate (GFR). It is about 125 ml/min in normal
healthy adult.
Micturition (voiding of urine)
• The collection of urine in urinary bladder and removal from it time to
time when enough volume (200-300 ml) is collected is called
micturition.
• Micturition centers are location in spinal cord, brain stem and cortex.
As cortical centers are not developed in children, so they do not have
good control over micturition.
• A normal adult expel around 1.5-1.8 L of urine per day.
Composition of urine
• Urine is pale yellow, slightly acidic fluid which chiefly consists of
around 96 % water and 2% urea.
• Remaining 2 % is made by other constituents including uric acid,
creatinine, hippuric acid, ammonia, phosphates, chlorides, oxalate,
sulphate, Na+, H+ etc.
Homeostasis
• The tendency of the body to maintain its internal environment at a
constant state is called as homeostasis.
• Rather than a fixed internal environment, a body have an equilibrium
state.
• Generally, homeostasis is understood as maintaining the internal
body temperature constant, however its more than that. To maintain
the other conditions inside the body also comes under homeostasis,
for eg. to maintain stomach acidity different from other surrounding
organs, ion concentrations of the cell from those of the surrounding
fluid, blood pressure etc.
Homeostasis: How normal body temperature
is kept constant?
Role of kidneys in homeostasis
• Kidneys are the organ which are concerned with throwing out excess of water,
nitrogenous waste and other solutes from the body. Thus, they balance the
concentration of solute in body fluid.

• When we drink less water,

• Concentration of dissolved salts rises
• Production of ADH by posterior pituitary increased
• Permeability of tubules increased
• More reabsorption of water, i.e. less volume of urine
• and, osmotic pressure of blood decreased and comes to optimal level.

• When we drink more water,

• Concentration of dissolved salts falls
• Production of ADH by posterior pituitary decreased
• Permeability of tubules decreased
• Less reabsorption of water, i.e. more volume of urine
• and, osmotic pressure of blood increased and comes to optimal level.
Regulation of salts
• It is performed with the help of Aldosterone hormone and
adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH).
• ACTH is produced by anterior pituitary in response to the low blood
pressure. This ACTH stimulates the production of aldosterone secretion.
• Aldosterone increases the reabsorption of sodium from glomerular filtrate.
Also, water is reabsorbed along with the sodium.

• Also, decrease in blood pressure also stimulates the production of renin

from kidneys. Renin catalyze the production of angiotensin II that
stimulates adrenal cortex to release more aldosterone. And, aldosterone
increases the reabsorption of sodium salt.
Q. What is the role of antidiuretic hormone (ADH)?
Q. What is the role of ACTH in homeostasis?