Blood flows into the kidney through the renal artery. This large blood vessel branches into smaller and smaller blood vessels until the blood reaches the nephrons. Each nephron is made up of a very small filter, called a glomerulus, which is attached to a tubule. As blood passes through the nephron, fluid and waste products are filtered out.
The nephrons work through a two-step process: the glomerulus filters blood, and the tubule returns needed substances to the blood and removes wastes.
Multisegmented tubule—composed of the proximal convoluted tubule, the loop of Henle, and the distal convoluted tubule—which reabsorbs the “good” (water and nutrients) and secretes the “bad” (metabolic waste products) from the glomerular filtrate, also called primitive urine.
Reabsorption occurs next to filtration. In this process, several components of the glomelular filtrate that are vital for body functioning are transferred back to the blood. It takes place in proximal convoluted tubule, Loop of Henle, distal convoluted tubule and collecting duct.
Nephron in kidney
