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 are known as
excretory organs.
• Major excretory system is urinary system because most of the nitrogenous
waste products, excess water and other toxic substances are thrown outside as
urine.
• Nitrogenous waste products (ammonia, urea, uric acid, creatinine, creatine,
etc.) are eliminated by urinary system (kidney).
• Skin, lungs, liver and intestine are known as accessory excretory organs.
• Skin removes salts, water and fat derivatives. Skin in man has two glands which
are excretory in nature: sweat glands (secrete watery fluid called sweat) and
sebaceous glands (secrete oily or wax like substance called sebum)
• Volatile substances (CO2, alcohol, water vapor) are eliminated by lungs.
• Liver plays important role in excretion of bile pigments, cholesterol, inactive
waste steroid hormones, etc.
• Intestine excretes salts of calcium and iron, bile pigments (bilirubin & biliverdin)
along with the faeces.
EXCRETORY/ URINARY SYSTEM
Gross Structure 1. Kidney
• Kidneys are bean-shaped organs, about 11 cm long, 6 cm wide, 3 cm
thick and weigh 150 g. They are retroperitoneal.
• Each kidney is enclosed by a thin tough fibrous connective tissue called
renal capsule that protects it from infections and injuries. Around the
capsule there is a layer of fat (adipose tissue) which is further enclosed
by another layer of fibrous membrane known as renal fascia.
• The bean shaped kidney have outer convex surface and inner concave
surface.
• In the concave depression, there is an opening called hilus renalis (renal
hilum) through which blood vessels, lymph vessels, nerves and ureter
enter or leave the kidney.
• Location: The kidneys lie on the posterior abdominal wall, one on each
side of the vertebral column, behind the peritoneum and below the
diaphragm.
• Position: It is situated at the level of T12-L3. The right kidney is usually
slightly lower than the left, probably because of the considerable space
occupied by the liver.
Anatomy of kidney
Anatomy of kidney
Anatomy of kidney
• Longitudinal section of the kidney shows: capsule, cortex and medulla.
1. Capsule:
• It is an outermost covering composed of fibrous tissue surrounding the
kidney.
2. Cortex:
• It is a reddish-brown layer of tissue immediately below the capsule and
outside the renal medulla
• It consists of renal corpuscles and convoluted tubules of nephron.
3. Medulla:
• It is the innermost lighter layer consisting of Henle’s loop and collecting
tubules of nephron.
• It consists of conical areas called the renal or medullary pyramids
separated by renal columns of Bertini.
• There are 8-18 renal pyramids in each kidney.
• The apex of each pyramid is called a renal papilla, and each papilla
projects into a small depression, called a minor calyx (plural calyces)(7-
13).
• Several minor calyces unite to form a major calyx (2-3).
• In turn, the major calyces join to form a funnel shaped structure called
renal pelvis that collects urine and leads to ureter.
Blood supply to kidney
• The renal artery enters the kidney through the hilum
and then branches progressively to form the
interlobar arteries, arcuate arteries, interlobular
arteries, and afferent arterioles, which lead to the
glomerular capillaries.
• The distal ends of the capillaries of each glomerulus
combine to form the efferent arteriole, which leads to
a second capillary network, the peritubular capillaries,
that surrounds the renal tubules called vasa recta.
• The blood vessels of the venous system progressively
form the interlobular vein, arcuate vein, interlobar
vein, and renal vein, which leaves the kidney beside
the renal artery and ureter.
Functions of Kidney:
• Osmoregulation: Kidney regulate osmotic pressure in the
body by regulating fluids and electrolyte balance
• Homeostasis: also regulate PH balance
• Excretion: metabolic wastes of the body are excreted in
the form of urea, creatinine, uric acid, etc. in urine.
• Excretion of Drugs and toxins
• Selective reabsorption: glucose, amino acids, water and
electrolytes, etc. are selectively reabsorbed in the renal
tubules
• Erythropoiesis: helps in RBC formation
• Blood pressure regulation
 Nephron-Structural anatomy and types
• Histologically, each kidney is composed of approximately 1 million of Uriniferous tubules
or nephron. Nephron is the structural and functional unit of the kidney.
• Each nephron has two major portions:
• A Renal corpuscle (Malpighian body)
• A Renal tubule
1. Renal corpuscles (Malpighian body):
• A renal corpuscle consists of a glomerulus surrounded by a glomerular capsule (Bowman’s
capsule).
• The glomerulus is a capillary network that arises from an afferent arteriole and empties into
an efferent arteriole. The diameter of the efferent arteriole is smaller than that of the afferent
arteriole, which helps maintain a fairly high blood pressure in the glomerulus.
• Bowman’s capsule is double walled cup like structure and it encloses the glomerulus. The wall of
glomerulus and the Bowman’s capsule consists of a single layer of flattened epithelial cells.
• Glomerular capsule consists of three layers
– i) Outer parietal layer consists of squamous epithelium cells with minute pore of 12nm
diameter called fenestrations
– ii) Middle basement membrane which is selectively permeable
– iii) The inner visceral layer of large nucleated cell called podocytes. Podocytes bears finger
like projections known as pedicels. The areas between the two pedicels is filtration slit
underlying basement membrane, which permits free passage of fluid filtrate into Bowman’s
capsule
2. Renal tubules:
• The renal tubule continues from Bowman’s capsule and consists of the
following parts: proximal convoluted tubule (in the renal cortex), loop of
Henle (in the renal medulla), distal convoluted tubule (in the renal cortex)
and collecting tubules.
i) Proximal convoluted tubules (PCT): it is proximal part of renal tubules next
to Bowman’s capsule. It is lined with microvilli. Maximum reabsorption of
water, glucose, amino acids and electrolytes takes place here.
ii) Loop of Henle: It is U shaped middle portion of renal tubules. It is
composed of ascending and descending loop. Ascending loop is thick walled
and impermeable to water while descending loop is thin walled and
permeable to water. Counter current mechanism is crucial role of loop of
Henle.
iii) Distal convoluted tubules (DCT): It is the distal part of renal tubules that
leads to collecting ducts. It is similar in structure and function with PCT.
iv) Collecting tubules: It is not a part of nephron rather it is a part of kidney.
The distal convoluted tubules from several nephrons empty into a collecting
tubule. Several collecting tubules then unite to form a papillary duct that
empties urine into a minor calyx and then into major calyx and finally into
renal pelvis.
Types of nephron
• Cortical nephron: 80% of the
nephrons have short loops of
Henle, small in size and mainly
lie in renal cortex. They do not
have vasa rectae. They control
plasma volume when water
supply is normal.
• Juxtamedullary nephron: 20%
of nephron have long loops of
Henle that extend into the
medulla. They are less
common but larger in size.
They have vasa rectae. They
control plasma volume when
water supply is short.
• The blood flows in opposite direction
in the two limbs of each vasa recta,
the blood flow in descending limb
comes close to the out going blood in
ascending limbs. This is known as
counter current system.
• The second counter current system is
formed by the two limbs of loop of
Henle; the filtrate in Bowman’s
capsule flows in two different
directions in its two limbs.
• The endothelial lining of vasa recta is
freely permeable to ions, water, urea.
• Na+ and Cl- ions leaving the
ascending limbs are reabsorbed in the
vasa recta from which they are
reabsorbed into the descending
limbs.
 2. Ureter
• These are one pair.
• Ureters are thin and muscular tube of about 25-30 cm
long and 3 mm wide.
• These arise from hilum of kidney and open into urinary
bladder.
• They are composed of transitional epithelium and convey
urine from kidney to urinary bladder
• Ureter divided into two parts: Upper portion is renal pelvis
and lower is ureter proper.
• Renal pelvis is the upper expanded funnel shaped portion
formed by joining of major calyces
• Proper ureter is the muscular tube which carries urine to
urinary bladder
 3. Urinary bladder
• It is thin muscular elastic bag located at the
posterior part of the abdominal cavity.
• Body of urinary bladder is a hollow sac like
reservoir to store urine
• As urine gradually fills up, the bladder expands
• Longitudinal fibers and circular fibers make the
bag expanding.
• A urinary bladder can collect about 300ml urine.
• The collection of urine in bladder and
discharging them time to time through urethra
is called micturition.
• Internal sphincter and external sphincter
(voluntary) control the micturition.
• Internally, the bladder has a triangular area
called trigone in which three openings are
opened.
• Two are openings of ureters one is opening of
ureters and one is opening of urethra.
 4. Urethra
• It is a short canal like structure which extends from
urinary bladder and leads to the exterior.
• Its length varies in male and female.
• Its length is 20 cm long in male and opens at the tip of
penis.
• It is called urinogenital duct in male as it serves for
passage of urine and semen.
• It is shorter (about 4cm) in female. It carries urine only.
• It opens out through urethral orifice (vulva) which lies
just above the vaginal orifice.
 Physiology of Urine formation

• There are three

stages involved
in the process
of urine
formation.
They are-
1. Glomerular
filtration or ultra-
filtration
2. Selective
reabsorption
3. Tubular
secretion
 1. Glomerular filtration
• This takes place through the semipermeable walls of the glomerular capillaries and Bowman’s capsule.
• The afferent arterioles supplying blood to glomerular capsule carries useful as well as harmful
substances. The useful substances are glucose, amino acids, vitamins, hormones, electrolytes, ions
etc., and the harmful substances are metabolic wastes such as urea, uric acids, creatinine, ions, etc.
• The diameter of efferent arterioles is narrower than afferent arterioles. Due to this difference in
diameter of arteries, blood leaving the glomerulus creates the pressure known as hydrostatic pressure.
• The glomerular hydrostatic pressure forces the blood to leaves the glomerulus resulting in filtration of
blood. A capillary hydrostatic pressure of about 70 mmHg builds up in the glomerulus. However this
pressure is opposed by the osmotic pressure of the blood, provided mainly by plasma proteins, about
30 mmHg, and by filtrate hydrostatic pressure of about 10 mmHg in the glomerular capsule and by
interstitial hydrostatic pressure of about 10 mmHg around the renal tubule.
• The net filtration pressure is,
• Therefore: 70-(30 +10+10) = 20mmHg.
• By the net filtration pressure of 20mmHg, blood is filtered in the glomerular capsule.
• Water and other small molecules readily pass through the filtration slits but Blood cells, plasma
proteins and other large molecules are too large to filter through and therefore remain in the
capillaries.
• The filtrate containing large amount of water, glucose, aminoacids, uric acid, urea, electrolytes etc in
the glomerular capsule is known as nephric filtrate or glomerular filtrate.
• The volume of filtrate formed by both kidneys each minute is called the glomerular filtration rate
(GFR). In a healthy adult the GFR is about 125 mL/min, i.e. 180 litres of filtrate are formed each day by
the two kidneys.
 2. Selective reabsorption
• As the filtrate passes to the renal tubules, useful substances including some
water, electrolytes and organic nutrients such as glucose, amino acids, vitamins
hormones ,etc., are selectively reabsorbed from the filtrate back into the blood
in the proximal convoluted tubule.
• Major portion of water is reabsorbed by Osmosis.
• Only 60–70% of filtrate reaches the Henle’s loop. Especially water, sodium and
chloride, is reabsorbed in the loop, so that only 15–20% of the original filtrate
reaches the distal convoluted tubule, More electrolytes are reabsorbed here,
especially sodium, so the filtrate entering the collecting ducts is actually quite
dilute.
• The main function of the collecting ducts is to reabsorb as much water as the
body needs.
• Nutrients such as glucose, amino acids, and vitamins are reabsorbed by active
transport.
• Positive charged ions ions are also reabsorbed by active transport while
negative charged ions are reabsorbed most often by passive transport.
• Water is reabsorbed by osmosis, and small proteins are reabsorbed by
pinocytosis.
 3. Tubular secretion
• Tubular secretion occurs mostly in the PCT and DCT where unfiltered substances are moved from the
peritubular capillary into the lumen of the tubule.
• Secretion usually removes substances from the blood that are too large to be filtered (ex: antibiotics,
toxins) or those that are in excess in the blood (ex: H +, K+ , creatinine).
• Tubular secretion of hydrogen ions (H+) is very important in maintaining normal blood pH
• These substances secreted into the tubule are destined to leave the body, the tubular filtrate is
finally known as urine.
• Human urine is usually hypertonic.
Composition of human urine
• Water – 96%
• Urea – 2%
• Uric acids, creatinine, pigments- 0.3%
• Inorganic salts – 2%
• Bad smell is due to Urinoid
• Pale yellow color due to urochrome or urobillin (which is a breakdown product of haemoglobin)
Micturation:
• The process of time to time collection and removal of urine from urinary bladder is known as
micturition. Collection of more than 300ml of urine in urinary bladder creates pressure on the wall.
The pressure stimulates the desire for urination.
 Types of urine formed in the tubules
 Isotonic urine: concentration of water in urine is equal
to that in blood plasma
 Hypotonic urine: concentration of water in urine is
greater than that in blood plasma
 Hypertonic urine: concentration of water in urine is less
than that in blood plasma
 Abnormal urine
 Glycosuria: presence of glucose in urine
 Hematuria: presence of blood in urine
 Ketonuria: presence of ketone bodies in urine
 Albuminuria: presence of albumin in urine
 Uremia: presence of urea in urine
ADH and regulation of water
reasbsorption:
 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 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 inhabit the
• 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.
• The regulation of water by ADH is an example of homeostatic feedback
mechanism.
 Osmoregulation by kidney:
• Osmoregulation is the maintenance of constant osmotic condition to regulate the water
content and solute concentration in body.
• Kidney plays an important role in maintaining water and osmotic concentration in the body.
• In aquatic animals like fishes or the animals living in water, the urine excreted is more dilute
than the plasma of the blood so as to remove excess of water. Thus, these animals secrete
hypotonic urine.
• In land animals, there is a danger of excessive loss of water from the body, so the urine
excreted is hypertonic.
• But, nearly all the vertebrates including mammals can excrete hypotonic urine. In these
animals, first the isotonic fluid is filtered into the Bowman’s capsule. The filtrate then passes
through the tubules of nephrons. During this course, some solutes are reabsorbed from the
filtrate leaving the filtrate more dilute than the blood, i.e., hypotonic. This helps to eliminate
water from the body and therefore raised the osmotic concentration of blood to normal.
• In case of man, hypertonic urine is excreted which is more concentrated than their blood
plasma. The filtrate in the Bowman’s capsule is isotonic, filtrates when passed through the
tubules of nephrons reabsorb large amount of water and solutes. Thus, the final filtrate
leaving the collecting duct is hypertonic. In this way, terrestrial animals conserve effectively
the loss of water in urine.
• During cold month (when no sweating occurs), most of the water remains in the body , hence
hypotonic urine is excreted.
• In warmer month (when excessive sweating occurs), most water is lost through sweat, thus
the urine excreted is hypertonic.
• Functions of skin: • Functions of liver:
1.Barrier against the invasion 1.Carbohydrate, fat, protein
of microorganism and metabolism.
chemicals 2.Deoxification of drugs.
2.Regulate the dehydration 3.Production of heat.
3.Barrier against UV light 4.Secretion of bile product.
4.Regulate the body 5.Storage of vitamins.
temperature 6.Breakdown of erythrocyte
5.Acts as to regulate and defense.
excretion of some substances 7.Inactivation of hormones.
6.Absorption of some 8.Synthesis of plasma
substances protein.
7.Sensitivity in response to
stimuli
 Homeostasis:
• The regulation or maintenance of a constant body fluid or internal
environment is called homeostasis.
• The temperature, amount of water and glucose concentration are at
almost constant in homeostasis.
• At the temperature of 37 oC enzymes work perfectly, division of cell and
metabolism is also perfect.
• 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: Skin helps in temperature regulation.
• It possesses pigment cells (chromatophores and melanophores), sweat
glands and sebaceous glands which help in controlling the heat and
fluid balance.
• 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. These also play key role in homeostasis. For
example,
(a) Regulation of water content by ADH
(b) Regulation of salt or ion concentration in blood
(c) Maintain acid base balance in body (Lactic acid, ketones, sulphuric acid
etc)
(d) Blood volume is regulated by the kidney
3.Liver as homeostatic organ: Liver is a key homeostatic organ due to the
following reasons:
(b) Regulation of Carbohydrate, lipid and amino acid metabolism.
(c) Regulation of amount of glucose in blood by gluconeogenesis process.
(c) It maintains the optimum temperature
(d) Liver produces the bile. Bilirubin and Biliverdin, by products of dead RBC
are excreted from the liver.
4.Lungs as homeostatic organ: It balances the concentration of O2 and CO2
in blood at the best level for the cells’ chemical reaction.