PENACO, JEZEREL M.

DATE: APRIL 15, 2020

BMLS 2-D DATE SUBMITTED: APRIL 15, 2020
HISTOLOGY LECTURE

URINARY SYSTEM
The urinary system consists of the paired kidneys and ureters, the bladder, and the urethra. This
system’s primary role is to ensure optimal properties of the blood, which the kidneys
continuously monitor.

KIDNEY
 Each kidney has a thick outer cortex, surrounding a medulla that is divided into 8-12
renal pyramids; each pyramid and its associated cortical tissue comprise a renal lobe.
 The apical papilla of each renal pyramid inserts into a minor calyx, a subdivision of two
or three major calyces extending from the renal pelvis.
 The ureter carries urine from the renal pelvis and exits the renal hilum, where the renal
artery and vein are also located.

RENAL VASCULATE

 Renal arteries branch to form smaller arteries between the renal lobes, with interlobular
arteries entering the cortex to form the microvasculature; venous branches parallel the
arterial supply.
 In the cortex afferent arterioles enter capillary clusters called glomeruli, which are
drained by efferent arterioles, instead of venules, an arrangement that allows higher
hydrostatic pressure in the capillaries.
 The efferent arterioles from cortical glomeruli branch diffusely as peritubular capillaries,
while those from juxtamedullary glomeruli branch as long microvascular loops called
vasa recta in the medulla.

NEPHRONS

 Functional units of the kidney are the nephrons, numbering about 1 million, each with a
renal corpuscle and a long renal tubule, and a system of collecting ducts.
 The renal corpuscle has a simple squamous parietal layer of the glomerular (Bowman)
capsule, continuous with the proximal tubule, and a specialized visceral layer of
podocytes surrounding the glomerular capillaries.
 Podocytes extend large primary processes that curve around a capillary and extend short,
interdigitating secondary processes or pedicels, between which are narrow spaces called
slit pores.
  The elevated pressure in the capillaries forces water and small solutes of blood plasma
through the glomerular filter into the capsular (or urinary) space inside the glomerular
capsule.
 In each glomerulus the filter has three parts: the finely fenestrated capillary endothelium;
the thick (330 nm) fused basal laminae of type IV collagen and other proteins produced
by the endothelial cells and podocytes; and the slit pores between the pedicels, covered
by thin filtration slit diaphragms.

RENAL CORPUSCLE

 Filtrate enters the long nephron tubule that extends through both the cortex and medulla,
with epithelial cells for both reabsorption and secretion of substances into the filtrate.
 The first tubular part, the PCT, is mainly cortical, has simple cuboidal cells with long
microvilli in the lumen, abundant mitochondria, and large, interdigitating basolateral
folds.
 In the PCT, all glucose and other organic nutrients, all small proteins and peptides (which
are degraded to amino acids), and much water and electrolytes are reabsorbed from the
filtrate and transferred to the peritubular capillaries.
 From the PCT filtrate flows into the loop of Henle, located in the medulla, which has
squamous thin descending and ascending limbs; the latter extends as a TAL back into the
cortex.

CORTEX OF THE TAL (also known as the distal straight tubule)

 Tall epithelial cells of the macula densa and specialized smooth muscle cells in the
adjacent afferent arteriole called juxtaglomerular cells, which secrete renin, comprise a
JGA that is an important regulator of blood pressure.
 Beyond the macula densa, the tubule continues as the DCT, where electrolyte levels of
the filtrate are adjusted further and which lead to short connecting tubules.
 Connecting tubules from several nephrons join to form the cortical collecting ducts, of
simple cuboidal epithelium, which enter the medulla in parallel with the loops of Henle
and vasa recta and become larger with more columnar cells.

URINARY TRACT

 Principal cells of the collecting ducts are pale-staining, with relatively few mitochondria
and distinct cell membranes that are rich in aquaporins (water channels) for passive water
reabsorption.
 The largest collecting ducts deliver filtrate into the minor calyces, where it undergoes no
further modification and is called urine.
 The calyces, renal pelvis, ureters, and urinary bladder are lined by urothelium, or
transitional epithelium, which protects underlying cells from hypertonic, potentially toxic
effects of urine.
 Large, bulbous superficial cells of the urothelium, called umbrella cells, have apical
membranes consisting of hinged regions with dense plaques of uroplakin proteins that
protect the cytoplasm.
 As the urinary bladder fills its highly folded mucosa unfolds, the urothelium gets
somewhat thinner by cell movements, and the hinged membrane plaques of umbrella
cells partially unfold.
 The urethra drains the bladder and in both genders is lined initially by urothelium,
followed (in males) by alternating stratified columnar and pseudostratified columnar
epithelium and distally by stratified squamous epithelium.
 In males the urethra has three regions: the prostatic urethra in the prostate gland, the short
membranous urethra passing through the urogenital diaphragm, and the long penile
urethra.