Excretion

Secondary 3 Courage and Truth

IGCSE Biology (0610)

◀ Photomicrographs of normal glomeruli (left) and an

abnormal glomerulus (right), which is caused by both
lupus and hypertension.
Excretion
● Excretion is defined as the removal of waste products of metabolism and
substances in excess requirements.
○ Metabolism refers to all the chemical reactions going on inside the body
that allow for life and normal functioning.
○ Defecation is therefore not considered as an excretory process since fecal
matter is merely undigested food and is not a product of metabolism.
● Examples of excretory products include:
1. Carbon Dioxide — the breakdown of glucose during respiration (i.e.
during aerobic respiration) produces carbon dioxide, and this is carried
away by the blood and removed in the lungs.
Excretion
2. Urea — excess amino acids are deaminated in the liver to form glycogen
and urea, and the urea is removed from tissues by the blood and expelled
by the kidneys. (Note that urea and similar waste products, such as uric
acid from the breakdown of proteins, contain the element nitrogen and
are thus often called nitrogenous waste products.)
3. Excess Water and Ions from Diet — during feeding, more water and
ions are taken in with food than needed by the body, and so, these excess
substances need to be removed as fast as they build up.
4. Drugs and Other Foreign Substances — these are initially taken into
the alimentary canal (i.e. the long tube of organs that goes from the
mouth all the way to the anus) and absorbed by the blood.
Excretion
5. Spent Hormones — the hormones produced by the endocrine glands
affect the rate which various body systems work (for example, adrenaline
speeds up the heartbeat). When the hormones have done their job,
however, they are changed in the liver and excreted by the kidneys.
● Nitrogenous waste products, excess water and ions from diet, and spent
hormones are excreted by the kidneys as a watery solution called urine.
● All the examples of excretory products listed are excreted by the kidneys, with
the exception of carbon dioxide.
● Why is excretion needed in the first place? Some of the compounds made in
reactions in the body (e.g. ammonia) are potentially toxic (poisonous) if their
concentrations build up.
Excretory Organs
1. Lungs
● While the lungs supply the body with oxygen, they are also excretory
organs because they get rid of carbon dioxide.
● They also lose a lot of water vapor, but this loss is unavoidable and is not
a method of controlling the water content of the body.
2. Liver
● The liver breaks down excess amino acids and produces urea.
3. Kidneys
● The kidneys remove urea and other nitrogenous waste from the blood.
● Moreover, they also take out excess water, ions, hormones, and drugs.
The Kidneys in Greater Detail
● The two kidneys are quite solid, oval structures. They are red-brown in color,
surrounded by a transparent membrane attached to the back of the abdomin-
al cavity.
● The renal artery branches off from
the aorta and brings oxygenated
blood to them, while the renal vein
takes deoxygenated blood away
from the kidneys to the vena cava.
● A tube, called the ureter, runs
from each kidney to the bladder
in the lower part of abdomen.
The Kidneys in Greater Detail
● Now, we will be moving on to the microscopic structure of the kidneys.
○ If the kidney is cut down its length, it
is seen to have a dark, outer region
called the cortex and a lighter, inner
zone known as the medulla.
○ The kidney tissue consists of many
capillaries and tiny tubes, called
renal tubules, held together with
connective tissue.
○ There exists a space where the ureter
joins the kidney, known as the pelvis.
The Kidneys in Greater Detail
○ The renal artery divides up into many arterioles and capillaries, mostly
in the cortex. Each arteriole leads to a glomerulus, which is a capillary
repeatedly divided and coiled to make a knot of vessels.
The Kidneys in Greater Detail
○ Each glomerulus is surrounded by
a cup-shaped organ called a renal
capsule, which leads to a coiled
renal tubule. This tubule, after a
series of coils and loops, joins a co-
llecting duct, which passes through
the medulla to open into the pelvis.
○ A nephron is a single glomerulus
with its renal capsule, renal tubule,
and blood capillaries.
Review: Slides 1 through 9
1. Identify the names of the structures
B through F.
2. F is connected to another structure,
structure G. Name the identity of G.
3. “[1] carries oxygenated blood into the
kidneys from the [2] of the heart, while
[3] carries deoxygenated blood from
the kidneys and into the [4] of the
heart.” Identify [1] through [4].
4. State the function of structure G.
Review: Slides 1 through 9
The Kidneys in Greater Detail
● Following the structure (both macroscopic and microscopic) of the
kidneys, we will now be moving on to discussing the three main
functions of the kidneys in greater detail: filtration, reabsorption,
and formation of urine.
The Kidneys in Greater Detail
1. Filtration
● Blood pressure in the glomerulus + its extremely thin,
semi-permeable capillary walls → part of the blood plasma
leaks through the capillaries and into the renal capsule.
● Red blood cells and plasma proteins that are contained in the
blood are too big to pass out of the capillaries.
● Only blood plasma without its proteins (i.e. the tissue fluid,
which consists of mainly water with dissolved ions, glucose,
urea, and uric acid) gets to leak through the capillaries.
The Kidneys in Greater Detail
2. Reabsorption
● After the blood plasma without
its proteins are collected in the
renal capsule, they travel down
the renal tubule.
● As they do so, the capillaries
that surround the renal tubule
absorb these substances which
the body need back into the
blood. First, glucose + water;
then, some ions + more water.
The Kidneys in Greater Detail
3. Formation of Urine
● Ions not needed by the body are left to pass on down the renal
tubule and into the pelvis of the kidney, together with any excess
water, urea, and uric acid.
● At this point, as we have previously discussed, the fluid is termed
the urine. The urine then travels down the ureter and into the
bladder, which in turn can expand to hold about 400 mL of urine.
● Note here that the urine cannot escape from the bladder because a
band of circular muscle, termed the sphincter, is contracted. This
shuts off the exit. When this sphincter muscle relaxes, the muscular
walls of the bladder expel the urine through the urethra.
The Kidneys in Greater Detail
● “The internal urethral
sphincter regulates
involuntary control of urine
flow from the bladder to the
urethra, and the external
urethral sphincter provides
voluntary control of urine
flow from the bladder to the
urethra.”
- Sam, Jiang, and
LaGrange (2022)
The Kidneys in Greater Detail
● Adults can control this sphincter muscle and will relax it only when
they want to urinate. In babies, however, the sphincter relaxes by a
reflex action, set off by pressure in the bladder. By 3 years old, most
children can control the sphincter voluntarily.
● The following table contrasts the composition of blood plasma and
the urine. Compare the data and explain.
The Kidneys in Greater Detail
● What about the contrast between the content of the blood plasma
before and after both filtration and reabsorption?
● At which one of the following regions is the concentration of the
blood plasma protein the highest?
A. Afferent Arteriole
B. Efferent Arteriole
C. Glomerular (or Renal) Capsule
The Liver
● Aside from being an excretory organ, the liver plays a very important role in
absorbing amino acids and incorporating them into other compounds in the
organism. We call this process of of absorption and incorporation into other
compounds assimilation.
● To describe this process in greater detail: the liver removes amino acids from
the plasma of the bloodstream and builds them up into proteins, which are
long chains of amino acids joined together by peptide bonds. An example of
a protein product that arises from this process is fibrinogen, which has a
role in blood clotting.
The Liver
● Unlike surplus glucose and fats, excess amino acids cannot be stored in the
body. They are broken down in the liver, removing the nitrogen-containing
part to form ammonia. And the rest of the molecule can be converted into
carbohydrates and fats, and these can be used in respiration.
● Subsequently, the ammonia is converted into urea, which then is passed into
the bloodstream and is filtered out by the kidneys. This process is known as
deamination. (Deamination is the removal of the nitrogen-containing part
of amino acids to form urea.)
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