BiologyCode 5090
Urinary system
What this topic asks you to be able to do
- Identify, on diagrams, the kidneys, ureters, bladder and urethra and give the job of each (the kidney's job should be stated plainly as taking urea and surplus salts and water out of the blood to make urine)
- Account for why excretion is needed, limited to the toxicity of urea
- Outline how a nephron and the blood vessels that serve it are built, limited to: glomerulus, Bowman's capsule, tubules, loop of Henle and collecting duct
- Outline what a nephron does, along with the blood vessels associated with it, limited to: the glomerulus filtering water, glucose, urea and ions out of the blood; the nephron reabsorbing into the blood all the glucose, most of the water and some of the ions; and the formation of urine, which contains urea, excess water and excess ions (these processes need not be described in detail)
- Describe the liver's contribution to the assimilation of amino acids, which it achieves by turning them into proteins
- Describe deamination, which happens in the liver, as removing the part of amino acids that contains nitrogen, so that urea is formed