Collecting Tubules and Ducts:

1. Structure. These differ from the nephrons in their embryonic origin and can be easily distinguished from the proximal and distal tubules in sections. Their block like lining cells have distinct intercellular borders; they are cuboidal in the smaller tubules and columnar in the larger leg, papillary) ducts of the medulla. Since their cytoplasm stains poorly, the cells appear clear or white.

2. Function. The cortical collecting tubules receive a reduced volume of hypotonic or isotonic urine from the nephrons and empty it into larger collecting ducts. These leave the cortex in medullary rays and enter the medulla, increasing in size until they open into a minor calyx through the tips of papillae.

Loop of Henle

Structure: Henle's loop, a U-shaped epithelial tube, includes thick and thin descending limbs and thin and thick ascending limbs. It extends from the proximal convoluted tubule in the cortex, dips into the medulla, and returns to the cortex, where it empties into the distal convoluted tubule. The abrupt transition from thick to thin in both arms of the U is the result of changes from low columnar or cuboidal to squamous and back to cuboidal epithelium. The change in the luminal diameter is less dramatic than that in the external diameter.

Function: A prerequisite for the production of hypertonic urine, the loop acts as a countercurrent multiplier to establish an osmotic gradient in the interstitial fluid of the medulla.

KIDNEYS

A. General Organization: The kidneys are bean-shaped retroperitoneal organs encapsulated by dense connective tissue and surrounded by adipose tissue. Several components can be distinguished without the aid of a microscope.

1. Renal sinus. This medial concavity of each kidney contains the renal pelvis, the entering and exiting blood vessels and nerves, and adipose tissue.
2. Hilum, This consists of the renal sinus and its contents.
3. Cortex, This is the kidney's dark-staining outer region; it underlies the capsule. It contains the renal corpuscles, proximal and distal convoluted tubules, peritubular capillaries, and medullary rays.
4. Medulla, This is the kidney's light-staining inner region, which partly surrounds the renal sinus. It consists of 8-18 conical medullary pyramids whose bases abut the cortex and whose apices (renal papillae) point inward, toward the renal sinus. It also contains the collecting ducts, loops of Henle, and vasa recta. Each renal papilla, perforated by openings of the collecting ducts, is cradled by a minor calyx into which the ducts empty. Several minor calyces empty into a major calyx. The major calyces empty into the renal pelvis, which in turn drains into the ureter. 5. Medullary rays. These fingerlike extensions of medullary tissue that enter the cortex comprise clusters of collecting tubules and ducts. One medullary ray occupies the center of each renal lobule.
6. Renal lobes, Each human kidney has 8-18 lobes, the kidney's largest subdivisions. Each lobe, which consists of a medullary pyramid and its associated cortex, contains numerous renal lobules.
7. Reual lobules, Each of these subdivisions of the lobes consists of a central medullary ray and all the nephrons that empty into its collecting tubules. The borders between adjacent renal lobules are marked by interlobular arteries and veins