EXCRETION

The process of elimination or removal of harmful

substances from the body is known as excretion.
The organs associated with the removal of
harmful substances is known as excretory system.
Major excretory system is urinary system because
most of the nitrogenous waste products, excess
water and other toxic substances are thrown
outside as urine. Skin, lungs and liver are known
as accessory excretory organs. Carbon dioxide is
eliminated by lungs. Skin removes salts and water.
DIFFERENT TYPE OF EXCRETORY PRODUCTS
IN ANIMALS
Ammonotelism: Animals whose principle nitrogenous waste
is ammonia which is highly toxic. Some example of
ammonotelic animals are fishes and other aquatic
invertebrates.

Urotelism: Animals whose principle

nitrogenous waste is urea less toxic than
ammonia. Some example of urotelic animals
are mammals.

Urecitelism: Animals whose principle

nitrogenous waste is uric acid least toxic
than ammonia and urea. Some example
are reptiles and birds
 ACCESSORY EXCRETORY ORGANS
SKIN: In many aquatic animals in which the excretory
organ is not developed, the skin is permeable to
nitrogenous waste caused by the process of diffusion.
In higher animals like mammals including man the skin
possess two types of glands are sebaceous and sweat
glands.
I. SWEAT GLAND: Sweat glands are small, coiled,
simple tubular glands that produce sweat. They
are found in the dermis of the skin, throughout
the body.
II. SEBACEOUS GLANDS: Sebaceous gland are
small oil-producing gland present in the skin of
mammals. Sebaceous glands are usually
attached to hair follicles and release a sebum
into the follicular duct and then to the surface of
the skin.
b. LIVER: The liver plays an essential role in
excreting the waste like bile pigments like bilirubin
and biliverdin which are the by products of the
breakdown of RBC. These bile pigments are
excreted along with faeces through the duodenum.
c. LUNGS: Lungs help in removing gaseous form of
CO2 and a little amount of water in the form of
vapour.
URINARY SYSTEM OF MAN CONSISTS OF
1.A pair of kidney
2.A pair of ureter
3.Urinary bladder
4.Urethra
 KIDNEYS (RETROPERITONEAL ORGAN)
Each kidney is dark red bean shaped measured about 11cm long
and 150gm weight. They lie on either side of vertebral column of
lumber region. Right kidney is slightly lower than left. Each
kidney is enclosed by renal capsule. Blood vessels, Lymph
vessels, nerves and ureter enter or leave from hilus renalis of
kidney.
MICROSCOPIC STRUCTURE OF KIDNEY:
Histologically, each kidney is composed of about one million
nephrons. L.S. of kidney shows two distinct regions-
Cortex: It is outer dark part of kidney. It consists of Bowmann’s
capsule and proximal and distal convoluted tubules of nephrons.
MEDULLA: Medulla is the inner part and is made up of conical
renal or medullary pyramids (15-16). Each pyramid has broad
base towards the cortex and narrow end called renal papilla,
between the pyramids cortex extends as renal column of
Bertini. The medullary pyramid are connected with minor
calyces(7-13) then minor calyces leads into major calyces(2-3).
The major calyces open into funnel shaped renal pelvis.
 URETER
There is one pair. Ureters are thin and muscular
tube of about 30 cm long. These arise from
hilum of kidney and open into urinary bladder.
 URINARY BLADDER
It is thin muscular elastic bag located in abdominal cavity.
Longitudinal fibers and circular fibers make the bag expanding.
The collection of urine in bladder and discharging of it from
urethra is called micturition. Internal sphincter and external
sphincter control the micturition.
Internally, the bladder has a triangular area called trigone in
which three openings are opened. Two are openings of ureters
and one is opening of urethra. A urinary bladder can collect
about 300ml urine.
 URETHRA
It is a short canal. Its length is 20 cm long in male and 4cm in female. It
is called urinogenital duct in male as it serves for passage of urine and
semen.
STRUCTURE OF A NEPHRON (URINIFEROUS TUBULE):
Nephrons are the structural and functional units of kidney.
There are about one million (ten lakh) uriniferous tubules
or nephrons in each kidney. Each nephron is long and highly
convoluted measuring 3cm long and primarily used for
filtration of blood. Nephron can be differentiated into two
main parts – Malpighian body and renal tubule:
STRUCTURE OF NEPHRON
MALPIGHIAN BODY: It comprises of cup like Bowman’s capsule
and glomerulus.
Bowman’s capsule: Bowman’s capsule is a small double walled
cup like structure. Outer layer is parietal and inner layer is
visceral. Parietal layer is lined by squamous epithelium and
visceral layer is lined by three layers: inner endothelium, middle
basement membrane and outer epithelium.
The outer epithelium of visceral layer is composed of special type of cells called
podocytes. Podocytes are the modified squamous cells with pedicles. The gap between
the pedicles of podocyte is called filtration slits that allows the filtrate into the Bowman’s
capsule.
GLOMERULUS: It is a capillary network inside the Bowman’s
capsule formed by the afferent arteriole a branch of renal artery.
The capillaries of glomerulus have small pore. The glomerulus
capillaries are covered by a basement membrane and numerous
pedicle. The capillary network of glomerulus exit in the form of
efferent arteriole
MESANGIAL CELLS are the specialized cells of
kidney its function is to remove trapped
residues and aggregated protein from the
basement membrane of Bowman’s capsule thus
keeping the filter free of debris.
RENAL TUBULE: It is the main coiled tubular part of nephron
lying just behind the Bowman’s capsule. It has following parts:
i. Proximal convoluted tubule (PCT):
It is the proximal part next to the Bowman’s capsule. Internally it
is lined with brush bordered cuboidal epithelium. It increases the
surface area for absorption. Mitochondria provide the energy for
active absorption. It is located in cortex and responsible for
reabsorption.
HENLE’S LOOP:
It is middle U-shaped. It lies in the medulla. It has thin
descending limb and a thick ascending limb. Both limbs are
supplied with parallel capillary system. These supply nutrient
and carry reabsorbed water away.
DISTAL CONVOLUTED TUBULE (DCT):It is posterior part and
located in cortex. It maintains the concentration of urine.
COLLECTING DUCT (CD):
The DCT opens into collecting tubule. It is present in the medulla region. The
collecting tubule joins to form large Ducts of Bellini and to Renal pelvis. These
ducts drain all the urine towards the pelvis.
TYPES OF NEPHRON: ACCORDING TO THE POSITION, IT IS OF
TWO TYPES
Cortical nephrons: These are common and about 85% of the
total nephrons are cortical. They are small and mainly lies in the
renal cortex. The Henle’s loop are short and extends to a short
distance into the medulla. They control the plasma volume when
water supply is normal.
Juxtamedullary nephrons: They are less common and 15% of
total nephron is juxtamedullary. Henle’s loop is longer and
extends deep into the medulla. They control plasma volume
when water supply is less.
 MECHANISM OF URINE FORMATION
1.ULTRAFILTRATION (GLOMERULAR FILTRATION) It is the first
process of urine formation. It takes place in the glomerulus.
Richards (1942) explained, the dissolved substances are filtered
out into the Bowmen’s capsule. The afferent arteriole enters the
glomerulus and exit in the form of efferent arteriole. The useful
and harmful substances are filtered in Bowmen’s capsule. These
are glucose, amino acids, vitamins and harmful nitrogenous
wastes (like uric acid, ammonia, large amount of salts) etc. These
are the low molecular weight substances. Large molecules like
protein, fats are not filtered. The diameter of afferent arteriole is
wider than diameter of efferent arteriole.
So that more blood enters into the glomerulus and less blood
volume exists, which create hydrostatic pressure of blood in
capillaries and force tend to move fluid out of the glomerulus.
The hydrostatic pressure of blood in the afferent arteriole is
about 70mmHg. The net filtration rate is 10 mmHg. About 180
liters of fluid are filtered from plasma but only about 11/2litre of
urine is produced every day.
ULTRAFILTRATION MEANING: It means a high pressure filtration
through a semipermeable membrane in which colloidal particles
are retained while the small sized solutes and the solvent are
forced to move across the membrane by hydrostatic pressure
forces.
2. SELECTIVE REABSORPTION
This is the second step in urine formation. It takes place in PCT and Loop of Henle. PCT
posses many brush bordered microvilli for absorption of filtrate. Mitochondria present in it
provide the energy for active absorption.
When the filtrate flows through PCT different substances like glucose, amino acid, salts,
urea and water are absorbed from the filtrate to the blood capillaries by both passive and
active transport mechanisms.
Then much reduced volume of filtrate passes into Henle’s loop.
Descending limb of the loop of Henle is fully permeable to
water but slightly permeable to Na+ and Cl-. The wall of
Ascending limb is largely impermeable to water but fully
permeable to Na+ and Cl-.
As the filtrate passes through the descending limb of
Henle’s loop, water moves out in the interstitial fluid
and to the capillary. The phenomenon maintains the
high concentration of solutes in the interstitial fluid. In
the ascending limb Na+ from the filtrate and Cl- pass
out passively. Concentrations of NaCl become high in
interstitial fluid, deep in medulla and lowest in cortex.
The ions move out from the ascending limb, the
filtrate becomes progressively hypotonic(less
concentrated)
3. Tubular Secretion
It is the final step in urine formation. It takes place in distal
convoluted and collecting duct. When filtrate flows through
the distal convoluted tubule(DCT) unwanted substances
present in the blood such as uric acid, hippuric acid
creatinine, ammonia, K+ and H+ are secreted by the blood in
to the tubular fluid by the process of active transport. Water
also reabsorbed or secreted in the DCT according to the
need of water by the body. The regulation of water is
controlled by antidiuretic hormone (ADH) released from
posterior pituitary gland
When these cells detect a decrease in the water
potential of blood below the set point, nerve
impulses are sent along the neurones to where
they terminate in the posterior pituitary gland.
These impulses stimulate the release of ADH
Molecules of ADH enter the blood in the
capillaries and are carried all over the body.
 HOW ADH AFFECTS THE KIDNEYS
Water is reabsorbed by osmosis from the fluid in
the nephron as the fluid passes through the
collecting ducts. The cells of the collecting duct
are the target cells for ADH. This hormone acts
on the cell surface membranes of the collecting
ducts cells, making them more permeable to
water. This change in permeability is brought
about by increasing the number of the water-
permeable channels known as aquaporins in the
cell surface membrane of the collecting duct
cells.
ADH molecules bind to receptor proteins on the
cell surface membranes, which in turn activate
enzymes inside the cells. The cells contain
ready-made vesicles that have many aquaporins
in their membranes.
Once the enzymes in each cell are activated by
the arrival of ADH, these vesicles move towards
the cell surface membrane and fuse with it, so
increasing the permeability of the membrane to
water. So, as the fluid flows down through the
collecting duct, water molecules move through
the aquaporins out of the tubule and into the
tissue fluid.
COMPOSITION OF URINE:
1.About 96% water
2.Urea
3.Urochrome, uric acid, creatinine, K+, H+ phosphates
are around 2 percent. Urochrome makes the urine yellow
colour.
Urine has a bad smell due to the presence of a substance
called urinod. Based on the amount of water present in
blood. Urine is of three types:
Isotonic urine: the concentration of water in urine is equal
to the concentration of water in blood plasma.
Hypotonic urine: the concentration of water in urine is
more than the concentration of water in blood plasma.
Hypertonic urine : the concentration of water in urine is
less than the concentration of water in blood plasma.
Homeostasis is the process of maintaining a stable internal
environment despite changes in the external environment or
Homeostasis is the process of maintaining bodily equilibrium by
monitoring and adjusting physiological processes. Homeostasis is
the tendency to resist change in order to maintain a stable,
relatively constant internal environment. The body maintains
homeostasis for many factors like temperature, the concentration
of various ions in our blood, along with pH and the concentration
of glucose. If these values get too high or low, you can end up
getting very sick.
Maintaining homeostasis at each level is key to maintaining the
body's overall function. The term homeostasis was first put
forward by French biologist Claude Bernard in 1859. In 1929,
American physiologist Walter Cannon first used the term
homeostasis and studied about it. Homeostatic organs are skin,
liver, kidney, lungs, endocrine glands etc.
1.SKIN AS HOMEOSTATIC ORGAN: It possesses sweat
glands and sebaceous glands which help in controlling
the heat and fluid balance. Skin helps in temperature
regulation. The melanin pigment helps to absorb solar
heat and increase body temperature.
2. KIDNEY AS HOMEOSTATIC ORGAN: Kidneys
are the chief excretory and osmoregulatory
organs. They also play key role in homeostasis.
For example
(a) Regulation of water content by ADH and
kidney.
(b) Regulation of salt or ion concentration in
blood.
(c) Maintain acid base balance in body.
3.LIVER AS HOMEOSTATIC ORGAN: Liver is also
a homeostatic organ due to the following
reasons: a. Regulation of amount of glucose in
blood by gluconeogenesis process, glycogenesis
and glycogenolysis.
b. It maintains the optimum temperature.
c. Bilirubin and Biliverdin, are processed by
liver.
4.LUNGS AS HOMEOSTATIC ORGAN
It balances the concentration of O2 and CO2 in
blood.
THANK YOU
Counter Current Mechanism:
The two limbs of Henle’s loop are opposite in property and the flow of filtrate is
opposite in direction. This process is Counter Current Mechanism. The functions of the
mechanism is to concentrate Nacl in the interstitial fluid and concentrates the urine
due to the water diffusion. The capillaries present in between the limbs, act as counter
current exchangers. The endothelial lining of capillaries is freely permeable to ions,
urea and water. Role of Henle’s loop and role of capillaries are important for Counter
Current Mechanism.
Descending limb of the loop of Henle is fully permeable to water but slightly
permeable to Na+ and Cl-. The wall of Ascending limb is largely impermeable to water
but fully permeable to Na+ and Cl-.
As the filtrate passes through the descending limb of Henle’s loop, water
moves out in the interstitial fluid and to the capillary. The phenomenon
maintains the high concentration of solutes in the interstitial fluid. In the
ascending limb Na+ from the filtrate and Cl- pass out passively. Concentrations
of NaCl become high in interstitial fluid, deep in medulla and lowest in cortex.
The ions move out from the ascending limb, the filtrate becomes progressively
hypotonic(less concentrated)
Importance of counter current mechanism
Countercurrent mechanism in the kidneys is the
process of using energy to generate an osmotic
gradient that enables body to reabsorb water
from the tubular fluid and produce concentrated
urine. This mechanism prevents us from
producing liters and liters of dilute urine every
day and is the reason why we don’t need to be
continually drinking in order to stay hydrated.
Osmoregulation by kidney
Osmoregulation is the maintenance of constant osmotic
condition to regulate the water content and solute
concentration in body.
Osmolarity (or osmotic concentration) is the measure of
solute concentration. It is defined as the number of
solute per litre (L) of solution (mosmol/L). Human
normal osmolarity is 290 – 300 mosmol/lt. A solution
with a low osmolarity has fewer solute particles per liter
of solution, while a solution with a high osmolarity has
more solute particles per liter of solution.
ADH and regulation of water reasbsorption:
Antidiuretic hormone (ADH) or vasopressin is the hormone released by
posterior part of pituitary gland. The main function of ADH is to increase
permeability of distal convoluted tubule (DCT) and collecting duct (CD)
due to which reabsorption of water increases. There are two conditions
to balance water:
1. When a person takes small amount of water:
In this condition large amount of salt is ingested in diet or excessive
sweating then solute potential of the body fluids become more negative
(Osmotic pressure or osmolarity rises in the blood). The change in the
osmotic potential is detected by osmoreceptors in the hypothalamus
and carried to the brain. The brain detects such changes in the body and
pituitary gland releases ADH in the blood.
A large amount of water is reabsorbed rapidly from the filtrate into the
cortex and medulla and passes back into the blood capillaries to
maintain osmotic pressure normal. So that urine becomes highly
concentrated and reduced volume of urine is released from kidney. It is
generally called anti-diuresis.
 2. When a person takes large amount of water:
When a person takes large amount of water or little
sweating or extremely low salt intake in diet then the
solid potential of the blood becomes less negative.
(Osmotic pressure becomes low in blood) This
condition is detected by osmoreceptors and carried to
the brain. It sends the message to the pituitary gland
to inhibit the action of ADH.
In absence of ADH walls of DCT and CD are
impermeable to water and less water is reabsorbed as
the osmotic pressure of filtrate is normal and large
volume of diluted urine is excreted. It is generally
called diuresis.
Osmoregulation in human:
Thus in case of human hypertonic urine is
excreted. This minimizes the water loss from
their body. The filtrate fluid in Bowman's capsule
(isotonic) passes through the tubules of
nephrons. Then a large amount of water and
solutes are reabsorbed during this course.
During cold month, hypotonic urine is excreted
but in warmer month hypertonic urine is
excreted due to sweating.
Osmoregulation in fresh water fishes:
The fresh water body fishes have gills and kidney for the
osmoregulation. The main problem of fresh water fish is the
passive out flow of salts and passive influx of water, so to
avoid these problem, fresh water fish balances the volume
of water and salts by three means:
i. Produce large amount of glomerular filtrate.
ii. The rate of selectively reabsorbed solute is high, so they
excrete dilute urine(more water less solutes)
iii. Freshwater fish take up sodium ion and chlorine ion
from water directly through gills due to the presence of
ionocytes or chloride cells in their gills.
2.Osmoregulation in marine fishes:
The fishes have hypotonic (water is less in body
fluid.There is constant loss of water from body and
passive inflow of salts, so to overcome this problem,
marine fish conserve the water and loss ion to
overcome dehydration of tissue by following ways:
i. It constantly drinks sea water. Kidney lacks
glomeruli so nitrogenous wastages are secreted
directly into renal tubules and water is absorbed by
osmosis.
ii. Ionocytes help to expel anions from body fluids to
seawater and from faeces. Hypertonic urine is
thrown(i.e less water but more solutes in urine)
Kidney transplantation:
Kidney transplantation is the transplant of a
kidney into a patient with end-stage renal disease.
KIDNEY STONES are small masses of salts and
minerals that form inside the kidneys and may
travel down the urinary tract. Kidney stones range
in size from just a speck to as large as a ping pong
ball. Signs and symptoms of kidney stones include
blood in the urine and pain in the abdomen.
About 5% of people develop a kidney stone in life
time.
KIDNEY STONE
Other functions of kidney
1.Regulation of fluid balance: The kidney controls
osmotic pressure of extra cellular body fluids by regulating
the amount of water loss from body.
2.Regulation of electrolyte concentrations: The
concentration of electrolytes like Sodium, Potassium,
Chloride Bicarbonates etc in blood also regulated. It is
performed by selective tubular reabsorption process in
proximal tubule.
3.Maintenance of acid-base balance
4.Removal of other substances like mineral salts, drugs,
arsenic
5. Kidney secretes erythropoietin which stimulates the
formation of RBC.
Functions of skin:
1.Barrier against the invasion of microorganism and chemicals
2.Regulate the dehydration
3.Barrier against UV light
4.Regulate the body temperature
5.Acts as to regulate excretion of some substances
6.Absorption of some substances
7.Sensitivity in response to stimuli
Functions of liver:
1.Carbohydrate, fat, protein metabolism.
2.Deoxification of drugs.
3.Production of heat.
4.Secretion of bile product.
5.Storage of vitamins.
6.Breakdown of erthrocyte and defence.
7.Inactivation of hormones.
8.Synthesis of plasma protein.
Osmoregulation in fresh water fishes:
The fresh water body fishes have gills and kidney for the
osmoregulation. The fishes have hypertonic body fluids i.e
200 to 300 mosmol/lt. Its outer medium has 50 mosmol/lt.
The main problem of fresh water fish is the passive out
flow of salts and passive influx of water, so to avoid these
problem, fresh water fish balances the volume of water and
salts by three means:
i. Produce large amount of glomerular filtrate.
ii. The rate of selectively reabsorbed solute is high, so they
excrete hypotonic urine(more water less solutes)
iii. Freshwater fish take up sodium ion and chlorine ion
from water directly through gills due to the presence of
ionocytes or chloride cells in their gills.
2.Osmoregulation in marine fishes:
The fishes have hypotonic (water is less in body fluid.
Its osmolarity is 200-300mosmol/lt inside and outside
medium osmolarity is 1000mosmol/lt .There is constant
loss of water from body and passive inflow of salts, so to
overcome this problem, marine fish conserve the water
and loss ion to overcome dehydration of tissue by
following ways:
i. It constantly drinks sea water. Kidney lacks glomeruli so
nitrogenous wastages are secreted directly into renal
tubules and water is absorbed by osmosis.
ii. Ionocytes help to expel anions from body fluids to
seawater and from faeces. Hypertonic urine is thrown(i.e
less water but more solutes in urine)