Stages in urine formation

(a) Glomerular Filtration:

● The walls of glomerular capillaries and Bowman’s capsule are very thin and they allow
water and small molecules in the blood to pass across the capillary wall through tiny
spaces between the cells of the Bowman’s capsule.
● The blood pressure is high in the glomerular capillaries because the efferent arteriole,
which drains them, is narrower than the afferent arteriole, which supplies them.
● Filtration of fluid under pressure is termed ultrafiltration. The filtered-out fluid is known
as glomerular filtrate.
● The filtrate contains sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium ions, glucose, amino
acids, and some other useful materials such as vitamins along with urea, uric acid;
ammonia, and some other wastes such as creatinine and ketone bodies and a large
amount of water.

(b) Tubular Reabsorption:

● It takes place mainly at the PCT but some substances are also reabsorbed at the loop of
Henle and DCT.
● Substances such as glucose, almost all amino acids, most of the inorganic ions (Na+,
K+, Cl-), much of the water, some urea, uric acid, and creatinine from the filtrate are
reabsorbed into the blood capillaries around the tubule.
● The movement of these substances takes place either by active transport or by
diffusion.

Tubular Secretion:

● Cells of the distal convoluted tubule and collecting duct of the nephron excrete
additional waste from the bloodstream into the filtrate by active transport.
● This process of tubular secretion adds urea, creatinine, potassium and hydrogen ions,
ammonia, and a little uric acid.

(c) Osmoregulation at the collecting duct:

● The collecting duct regulates the water content and solute concentration in the surrounding
blood by either becoming permeable or impermeable to the water flow.
● When the solute concentration of blood is high, the collecting duct becomes permeable to
water and allows the movement of water into the surrounding blood capillaries. This
function is due to the secretion of Antidiuretic Hormone (ADH) from the pituitary gland.
● When the solute concentration of blood is low, ADH secretion is stopped which will then
make the collecting duct become impermeable to water.