Excretion

Objectives:
 Explain the importance of excretion in human beings
 Explain the roles of the organs involved in excretion
 Relate the structures of the kidney to their function
 Relate the structures of the skin to their functions
 Explain the concept of homeostasis
 Explain the concept of feedback mechanisms
 Describe the regulation of blood sugar
 Explain the regulation of water
 Distinguish between heat and temperature
 Describe the regulation of temperature. Include vasodilation and
vasoconstriction.
Many chemical reactions go on inside your body. Some of these produce potentially harmful
substances, such as hydrogen peroxide. Our cells contain the enzyme catalase that converts
any hydrogen peroxide produced by our metabolism into water and oxygen before it has any
chance to do harm. Ammonia is another very harmful, or toxic, substance that we produce
and this also needs to be converted into something less harmful as soon as it is produced. We
convert it into urea, but unlike oxygen and water we cannot do anything with urea so it is
excreted from body in urine. The kidneys are the main excretory organs of the body. They
also help to control the water in the body so if we have too much we get rid of it the urine and
if we do not have enough then the kidneys can retain some. The other excretory organs are
lungs and the liver. The skin also removes some excretory substances.
The sum total of all the chemical reactions going on in cells is known as metabolism.
Chemical reactions must occur in all living cells, and therefore all living organism, to sustain
life. These reactions produce a range of waste products, called excretory products, which
must be eliminated from the organism. The removal of the excretory products which are
made in cells as a result of these metabolic reactions, is called excretion. Many of these
excretory products are toxic and slow down metabolic reactions. If these substances were
allowed to accumulate in the body they could damage and kill the body cells. They need to be
continually removed as they are produced by the body.
Excretion must not be confused with the removal of faeces (defaecation) during egestion in
humans. Defaecation is the removal of undigested food, but excretion is the getting rid of all
excretory products. This undigested food simply passes through the alimentary canal and is
not absorbed into the cells of the body. It passes out of the anus as faeces.
The main waste products that are excreted from the body are as follows:
 Carbon dioxide
 Water / Water vapour
 Mineral salts
 Nitrogenous waste in the form of urea
 Bile pigments

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Major sources of metabolic waste

Carbon dioxide:
Carbon dioxide is the product of aerobic respiration. It is produced inside the mitochondria
and then it diffuses from cells into the blood. Carbon dioxide is transported as hydrogen
carbonate ions to the lungs where it is converted back into carbon dioxide when we breathe
out.
Urea:
Excess amino acids are broken down in the liver into ammonia by chemical reactions know
as deamination. We cannot excrete ammonia as it is very toxic, and it would be fatal if we
let it circulate in the blood before leaving via the kidneys. Ammonia would increase the pH
of the in the cytoplasm of the cells, decreasing the activity of enzymes. To prevent this
happening, liver cells react ammonia with carbon dioxide to make urea, which is much less
toxic, but still harmful if allowed to accumulate in the blood above a certain concentration.
Bile pigments:
Bile pigments are made from the haemoglobin molecules in worn-out red blood cells that
have been broken down in the liver. Most of the bile pigments are excreted in bile, which
passes from the gall bladder into the small intestine. If they are not excreted then they
accumulate in the skin, causing it to go yellow – a condition known as jaundice.
Water:
Water is a metabolic product as it is a waste product of aerobic respiration that occurs in
almost every cell of the body. Water produced from respiration is know as metabolic water.
Some desert animals rely on it almost entirely as their diets consist of very dry food. This
does not apply to us and if we have more water in the body than we need, the excess is
excreted. Some is inevitably lost by evaporation in the lungs and some is lost in sweat, but
the kidneys control how much we lose in the urine.
Mineral salts:
Mineral salts are not produced in any chemical reactions in the body. These salts or ions enter
the body in the diet. We cannot control exactly how many of these ions we need in our diet
each day, so any excess is excreted. These are ions such as, sodium, potassium, phosphate
and calcium ions.

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 The urinary system
The kidneys are paired organs which form part of the urinary system. Shown below
are the other structures in the urinary system and their relation to the kidneys.

In the kidneys, ions and small molecules, such as water and glucose, are removed from the
blood. Most of these are returned to the blood before it leaves the kidneys. However, any that
are not needed or are surplus to the body’s needs become part of urine. The urine passes
from the kidneys to the bladder, where it is stored. When the bladder is full, the urine is
passed out of the body during urination.
Kidney structure
You can see the shape of a kidney in figure b.5.1.4. this also shows the ureter which is
the “tube” that takes urine from the kidney to the bladder. The diagram below shows a view
of a vertical section through a kidney. The outer region is the cortex, which has a dark red
colour because it is full of blood vessels. The inner medulla is pink because it has fewer
blood vessels than the cortex. Urine flows down small tubes in the pyramids into a region at
the top of the ureter called the pelvis.

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 Kidney Functions
The functions of the kidneys are summarized in the table below. Note that the kidneys
have functions other than excretion. You only need to be familiar with the first two functions
however the extra knowledge won’t hurt.
Table 1 SUMMARY OF KIDNEY FUNCTIONS

Function How achieved

Excretion Urea and certain waste substances including those made in the body
when alcohol, drugs and other toxins are metabolised; the excretory
wastes are removed from the blood and passed out in the urine.

Osmoregulation Surplus water is removed from the blood and incorporated into
urine.

Controls the pH of Surplus hydrogen ions are neutralized or removed from the blood ad
blood incorporated into urine.

Endocrine organ Releases a hormone that increases the production of red blood cells
in bone marrow.

Kidney tubules (Nephrons)

Each kidney contains about one million microscopic tubules called nephrons. It is in
these nephrons that blood is filtered and urine is formed. Below shows the structure of an
individual nephron. It is composed of a long tube, with two coiled regions. In between the
two coiled parts is a long loop, the loop of Henle. One end of the nephron has a cup-like
shape, the Bowman’s capsule, enclosing a knot of blood capillaries called the glomerulus.
The other end leads into a wider tube, called the collecting duct, which passes down into the
pyramid.

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If you examine a prepared slide of a section through a kidney under a microscope you will
not see the whole of one nephron as clearly as this. The reason is that nephrons are three
dimensional structures that have regions that are highly coiled, so they never lie in one plane.
The diagram above shows the position of the nephrons inside a kidney. Remember when you
look at the figure that each kidney has about one million nephrons inside it.

Two main processes take place in the nephrons.

Ultrafiltration of blood plasma from the glomerulus into Bowman’s capsule.
Selective reabsorption from the filtrate back into the blood capillaries around the nephron.

Ultrafiltration – Glomerulus and Bowman’s capsule

The afferent arteriole which comes to the Bowman’s capsule has a bigger diameter than the
efferent arteriole leaving. As a result, pressure builds up in the capillaries of the glomerulus.
As blood flows under this high pressure, the smaller components of the blood plasma are
pushed out into the surrounding cup-like Bowman’s capsule.
The mixture of substances that forms inside the Bowman’s capsule is called the ultrafiltrate.
The main constituents of this fluid are water, glucose, ions (e.g. Sodium, chloride and
potassium), amino acids and urea. Red blood cells and large molecules, such as proteins,
remain in the blood because they are too large to pass through the pores and the fibrous
membrane.
Selective reabsorption – First convoluted tubule/Proximal convoluted tubule
Selective reabsorption is the reabsorption of a substance in preference to others that are
present. This occurs in the region of the nephron called the proximal convoluted tubule.
Glucose is a small molecule, so it is a component of filtrate as it moves through the proximal
convoluted tubule. Here it is reabsorbed into the plasma of the capillaries that are wrapped
around the tubules. Glucose is not a waste product – it is needed by the body since it is used
to make energy. It is reabsorbed from the filtrate, which continues on into the Loop of Henle.
A person suffering from diabetes mellitus has glucose in the blood at such a high level that it
exceeds that which the kidney can reabsorb and so glucose is excreted in urine. This
condition is also known as ‘sugar’. The urine of non-diabetics does not contain glucose since
all is reabsorbed back into the blood. The urine of diabetics tests positively for reducing sugar
(glucose).
Reabsorption of water – Loop of Henle
The filtrate now flows through the Loop of Henle where water is reabsorbed into the blood
capillaries. The longer the Loop of Henle, the more water is reabsorbed. The filtrate
continues to the distal convoluted tubule.

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Selective reabsorption – Second coiled tubule/Distal convoluted tubule
As the filtrate moves through the distal convoluted tubule and collecting duct, reabsorption of
salts and water occurs. This reabsorption, however is controlled by a hormone and depends
on the concentration of solutes in the blood.
Urine
The filtrate is now called urine, and contains the water, salts and urea that are not needed by
the body. The urine flows to the pelvis of the kidney from the thousands of collecting ducts.
It then travels, via the ureter to the bladder to be stored before urination.

Feature Explanation of how this helps

reabsorption
Each kidney tubule has over a million Increases surface area for reabsorption
tubules
Tubules are long Increases surface area for reabsorption
Tubules are coiled Allows tubules to be long but contained
within a small space
Cells lining the tubule have microvilli on Microvilli increases the surface area of each
their inner surface cell lining the tubule without increasing its
overall size
Cells lining the tubule have many Mitochondria produce ATP, which is a
mitochondria in their cytoplasm source of energy for reabsorption by active
transport

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Kidney Failure
The kidney can fail if a person is involved in an accident and has lost quite a lot of blood.
They also fail in people who are in intensive care who have blood poisoning, becomes
seriously dehydrated or have had severe burns. However, most cases of kidney failure are
linked to hypertension and diabetes.
If for some reason the nephron seizes to function properly, a person is no longer able to
control the volume or composition of the blood. If steps are not taken to correct or
compensate for the malfunction, death is the likely outcome and it will happen fairly quickly.
Kidney failure can be treated in one of three (3) ways:
 Haemodialysis – using a kidney machine that replaces the essential functions of the
kidneys.
 Peritoneal dialysis – in which the body’s own abdominal membranes take over the
function of the kidney
 A kidney transplant from a compatible donor
Dialysis
The figure below shows a patient on a kidney machine. Notice that tubes run between his
forearm and the machine. Blood from a vein flows into the dialysis machine and then returns
to a vein. Veins in the arms are usually used, but those in the neck or legs may also be used.

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Before the first course of dialysis treatment a surgical procedure is performed to join an
artery to a vein forming an external shunt or an arteriovenous fistula. This provides an
accessible site through which the individuals blood can be drawn into the dialysis machine
and returned when it has been filtered.
The diversion of high pressure blood into a vein strengthens the wall of the veins so it is
better able to take the cannulas that need to be inserted for the blood to flow into the kidney
machine and then back into the body. The fistula may last for many years, even a lifetime.
Some people cannot have an operation to make a fistula as their veins are not suitable. In
stead a blood vessel maybe grafted in place.

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A small dose of heparin (an anticoagulant) may be put into the fistula between procedures to
prevent blood clots from forming and obstruction the shunt.
Kidney Transplants
A transplant involved removing a healthy kidney from one person (the donor) and surgically
inserting it into the abdomen of a person whose own kidneys do not work (the recipient). For
skilled surgeons this is a relatively straightforward operation.
A problem arises, however, if certain white blood cells in the recipient recognize the new
kidney as foreign tissue and attack it. This is called tissue rejection. If unchecked, the
recipient’s white cells will attack the cells of the transplanted kidney and destroy them,
resulting in the failure of the transplant. Tissue rejection can be reduced by matching the
tissue types of the donor and recipient, injecting immunosuppressant drugs which suppress
the action of the white cells of the recipient, or keeping the recipient in sterile conditions in
hospital for several days after the operation to prevent infection while the body’s immune
system is not working.
Successful kidney transplants can enable people suffering from kidney failure to lead normal
lives.

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