how can you compare a filter with a kidney?

Question

I know the kidneys are a filter in the human body but thats it I dont understand how to compare them to anymore

Answer 1

The kidneys are a combination of one filter and many pumps. The filter lets through all the liquid parts of the blood while keeping anything big out (red blood cells, proteins, etc). Then there are pumps that pump all the good stuff disolved in the liquid that you don't want to lose (such as sugar and salt) back into the blood. What is left over is mostly waste.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Kidneys and filters are the same thing in the sense that they both filter out things (toxins in the case of a kidney )

Answer 4

All of the blood in the circulatory system (e.g. arteries and veins) pass through the kidneys. The function of the kidneys is to excrete waste products while retaining useful components (e.g. protein, nutrients and vitamins). So think of the kidney as a filter, blood rushes to the kidneys and wastes passes through the kidneys and in to the urine, while nutrients can not pass through and are returned to the bloodstream.

Answer 5

The kidney has a functional unit in it called a nephron. There are approximately 1.2 million nephrons in each kidney. Within these nephrons there are structures that help in excretion and reabsorption of solutes. So basically, your kidney has little structures in it called nephrons and within those nephrons are little tubules that blood is filtered in.

Glomerulus w/in the Bowman's capusule
-Function of filtration of blood

Proximal Tubule
-Reabsorption of sodium ion, glucose, potassium ion, amino acids, bicarbonate, phosphate, urea, water
-Secretion of hydrogen ion and foreign substances

Loop of Henle
-function of concentrating urine
-Decending loop functions as water reabsorption and sodium diffusion
-Ascending loop functions as sodium reabsorption

Distal Tubule
-Reabsorption of sodium, water, and bicarbonate
-Secretion of potassium, urea, hydrogen, ammonia, some drugs

Conncecting duct
-reabsorption of water
-reabsorption or secretion of sodium, potassium, hydrogen and ammonia

So basically the solutes in our blood is filtered in our kidney structures and excreted to become urine and reabsorbed into our blood depending if our body needs that solute or not.

It is important to not that as with a filter and a kidney, inadequate perfusion determines proper functioning and filtering. For instance, if you place water on a filter, it will filter very slowly, but if you put some pressure with the water against that filter, the water will filter fairly fast. It's kind of the same with the kidneys. If you have a low blood pressure, your kidneys will not have adequate perfusion and will not filter out all the junk. That's called renal failure. Your kidney has sensors to counteract this through hormonal regulation in which Renin-angiotensin is secreted to tell your body "hey, you're not giving us kidney's enough pressure to filter out the blood" and it'll hopefully bump up the blood pressure.