Nephron

In the syllabus and the exam

The nephron is examined as the site where all the stages of urine formation actually happen, so candidates are expected to trace a single pathway of structures, the glomerulus and Bowman's capsule, the proximal convoluted tubule, the loop of Henle, the distal convoluted tubule, and the collecting duct, and match each part to the specific process occurring there. A typical structured question presents a labelled diagram of the nephron and asks candidates to identify where ultrafiltration occurs, where selective reabsorption of useful substances such as glucose and some water happens, and where fine adjustment of water content takes place under the influence of antidiuretic hormone. Candidates should also connect the huge number of nephrons per kidney, and the large surface area of the glomerulus and its associated capillaries, to the kidney's overall efficiency at filtering blood. A common error is treating the nephron and the kidney as the same scale of structure, when the nephron is instead the microscopic functional unit that the kidney contains in vast numbers.

Example

Each kidney contains roughly a million nephrons, each one carrying out filtration and reabsorption independently.

Related terms

UltrafiltrationOsmoregulationHomeostasis

Source:SRC-DSKP-EN