Homestasis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Homestasis - Essay Example The urinary system consists of kidneys, ureters, urinary bladder and urethra. The metanephric kidneys in humans filter the blood and forms urine which is carried by the ureters to the urinary bladder where it is stored till it is passed out through the urethra. The reflex of voiding urine is known as micturition. If the urine content of the urinary bladder reaches more than 300ml, the reflex of micturition is triggered. The urine that is primarily formed by the kidneys is highly dilute and contains a lot of salts and other substances which are beneficial and useful to the body. The urine needs to be concentrated and the salts must be reabsorbed else all of the water and important salts would be excreted leading to salt and water imbalance in the body. This is where the role of the kidneys comes in. The fact is that the structure, function and location of the kidneys help in maintaining homeostasis in the human body. It was in 1902 that Hober coined the term osmoregulation; Osmoregulation is a collective of a number of processes that regulate water content, volume and movement. Each kidney is made up of about 1.25 million nephrons which are the prime functional units of the kidneys. It is the structure of nephrons that play the most pivotal role in maintaining the homeostatic balance of the body. The structure of the nephrons is complicated and consists of three major parts- Renal corpuscle (Bowman’s capsule and Glomerulus), Nephric Tubules (PCT, Henle’s loop and DCT) and Collective tubule. Each of the parts of the nephrons play important role in formation of urine and maintaining internal chemical balance. Bowman’s capsules act as Ultrafiltration and filters out water and other substances from the plasma as the blood flows through the glomerulus except for the blood cells and plasma proteins. The glomerulus filtrate so formed passes through the tubules. During this