Wednesday, 5 December 2012

A2 Biology: Osmoregulation in collecting duct


  • The Loop of Henle is where most water is reabsorbed.
  • The longer the loop of Henle the more water is reabsorbed from the filtrate - back in the blood.
E.g. A desert rat would have a longer loop of Henle than a horse or a beaver as it requires more water to be reabsorbed and conserve to help it survive in the heat. A beaver would have a smaller loop of Henle in comparison to the horse as it lives in water.

When you are THIRSTY 
  • it is detected by osmoreceptors in the hypothalamus
  • the osmoreceptors shrink due to a decrease in water potential in the blood
  • it then synapses with neurosecretory cell - terminal bulb (which is equivalent to synaptic knobs) and fires off an action potential
  • it releases vesicles that contains the hormones Antidiuretic Hormones (ADH) into the blood in the posterior pituitary gland
  • ADH in blood targets cells forming walls of collecting duct
  • causing a series of enzyme reactions including cyclic AMP
  • vesicles with water channels aka aquaporins fuse with the cell membrane makin collecting duct more permeable to water
  • the collecting duct passes through medulla (salty tissue fluid) so water pulls out of the filtrae by osmosis to be reabsorbed in blood.
  • this produces a small quantity of concentrated urine
  • water back in the blood  blood water potential is restored back to normal
  • this process switches off = negative feedback

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