Nephron

00:00 Now, turn your attention to the left-hand diagram, and we're going to describe the structure of a nephron. Concentrate on, perhaps, the juxtamedullary nephron shown there, because it's drawn a little bit larger and a bit easier then to understand. On the right-hand side, you can see circular structures with a little white halos around them. They are the glomerulus in the renal, in the Bowman's capsule, that's part of the corpuscle, the renal corpuscle I'll describe in a moment.

00:40 And all the other profiles you see are going to be profiles through the tubule system. Go back to the diagram. Have a look at the juxtamedullary nephron, and let's just see if we can remember its components. In the center, there's a little round red structure. That's the glomerulus. It sits in Bowman's capsule, which is also a component of that little round red structure. And then you have this tubular system leaving the renal corpuscle and forming rather a cold blue colored structure there. It's a coiled tube. It's proximal to the renal corpuscle.

01:30 So it's called the proximal convoluted tubule, because it's all coiled. And then you see a straight segment going down towards the papilla of the medulla.

01:47 That's called the descending straight segment. Then there's a little loop.

01:51 It's a thin loop. It's a thin segment. That's called the thin loop of Henle. And then it descends as an ascending thin limb of the loop of Henle, and then joins to a thicker red colored part of the tubule system. That's the distal straight tubule as opposed to the proximal straight tubule you saw earlier. And then that ascending distal straight tubule gives rise to another coiled tubule. That's called the distal convoluted tubule. And then that opens into a collecting tubule, and a series of collecting tubules open into the collecting duct, which carries the urine then down and it then drips from the papilla of the renal pyramid.

02:51 So make sure you understand then the tubule system of the nephron. Proximal convoluted tubule, descending thick limb, then thin segment, descending thin segment loop of Henle, ascending thin limb of Henle, and then the ascending thick limb or segment of the distal tubule and then the distal convoluted tubule emptying into the collecting tubule and then the collecting duct. They are the components of the nephron that function. They do all the important parts of the kidney does that you'll get explained to you in your physiology lectures. Let's now have a look at some of the histological details of those components. So if you can imagine a line or a section taken through that top part where the renal corpuscle is of the nephron you've been looking at, you'll see the sort of image you'll see on the right hand side.

03:58 Again, sections through the renal corpuscle and profiles through all those convoluted tubules, the straight tubules you'll see down towards the lower region and in the medulla.

04:10 Here is a diagram explaining the structure of the renal corpuscle.