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Bowman's capsule



Bowman's capsule
Glomerulus. (Bowman's capsule not labeled, but visible at top.)
Glomerulus is red; Bowman's capsule is green.
Latin capsula glomeruli
Gray's subject #253 1222
Precursor Metanephric blastema
MeSH Bowman+Capsule
Dorlands/Elsevier c_07/12211408

The Bowman's capsule(other names: capsula glomeruli, glomerular capsule) is a cup like sac at the beginning of the tubular component of a nephron in the mammalian kidney. A glomerulus is enclosed in the sac. Fluids from blood in the glomerulus are collected in the Bowman's capsule (i.e., glomerular filtrate) and further processed along the nephron to form urine. This process is known as ultrafiltration.

Contents

Anatomy

Outside the capsule, there are two "poles":

  • The vascular pole is the side with the afferent arteriole and efferent arteriole, as well as the distal convoluted tubule.
  • the urinary pole is the side with the proximal convoluted tubule.

Inside the capsule, the layers are as follows, from outside to inside:

See glomerulus#layers for more details.
parietal layer A single layer of simple squamous epithelium. Does not function in filtration.
Bowman's space (or "urinary space", or "capsular space") Between the visceral and parietal layers, into which the filtrate enters after passing through the podocytes' filtration slits.[1]
visceral layer Lies just beneath the thickened glomerular basement membrane and is made of podocytes. Beneath the visceral layer lie the glomerular capillaries.
FIltration Barrier The filtration barrier is composed of the fenestrated endothelium of the glomerular capillaries, the fused basal lamina of the endothelial cells and podocytes, and the filtration slits of the podocytes. The barrier permits the passage of water, ions, and small molecules from the bloodstream into the Bowman's space. The barrier prevents the passage of large and/or negatively charged proteins (such as albumin). The basal lamina of the filtration barrier is composed of three layers. The first layer is the lamina rara externa, adjacent to the podocyte processes. The second layer is the lamina rara interna, adjacent to the endothelial cells. The final layer is the lamina densa which is a darker central zone of the basal lamina. It consists of the meshwork of type IV collagen and laminin which act as a selective macromolecular filter.

Physiology

The process of filtration of the blood in the Bowman's capsule is ultrafiltration (or glomerular filtration), and the normal rate of filtration is 125 ml/min, equivalent to ten times the blood volume daily.

Any proteins under roughly 30 kilodaltons can pass freely through the membrane, although there is some extra hindrance for negatively charged molecules due to the negative charge of the basement membrane and the podocytes.

Any small molecules such as water, glucose, salt (NaCl), amino acids, and urea pass freely into Bowman's space, but cells, platelets and large proteins do not.

As a result, the filtrate leaving the Bowman's capsule is very similar to blood plasma in composition as it passes into the proximal convoluted tubule.

Clinical significance

Measuring the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is a diagnostic test of kidney function.

A decreased GFR may be a sign of renal failure.

A number of diseases can result in various problems within the glomerulus. Examples include acute proliferative (endocapillary) glomerulonephritis, mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis, mesangiocapillary (membranoproliferative) glomerulonephritis, acute crescentic glomerulonephritis, focal segmental glomerulonephritis, and diabetic glomerulosclerosis.

Eponym

Bowman's capsule is named after Sir William Bowman (1816-1892), a British surgeon and anatomist.

Together with the glomerulus it is known as a renal corpuscle, or a Malpighian corpuscle, named after Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694), an Italian physician and biologist. This name is not used widely anymore, probably to avoid confusion with a Malpighian corpuscle in the spleen.

See also

  • mesangium

Additional images

References

  1. ^ Histology at BU 22401lba
v • d • e
Urinary system - Kidney
LayersRenal fascia • Renal capsule • Renal cortex  (Renal column) • Renal medulla (Renal sinus, Renal pyramids, medullary interstitium) • Renal lobe • Cortical lobule • Medullary ray • Nephron
Afferent circulationRenal artery → Segmental arteries → Interlobar arteries → Arcuate arteries → Cortical radial arteries → Afferent arterioles → Renal corpuscle (Glomerulus, Bowman's capsule)
Renal tubuleProximal tubule → Loop of Henle (Descending, Thin ascending, Thick ascending) → Distal convoluted tubule → Connecting tubule → Collecting ducts → Duct of Bellini → Renal papilla → Minor calyx → Major calyx → Renal pelvis → Ureter
Efferent circulationGlomerulus → Efferent arterioles → Peritubular capillaries/Vasa recta → Arcuate vein → Interlobar veins → Renal vein
Juxtaglomerular apparatusMacula densa • Juxtaglomerular cells • Extraglomerular mesangial cell
FiltrationGlomerular basement membrane • Podocyte • Filtration slits • Intraglomerular mesangial cell • Tubular fluid
Renal physiologyAcid base physiology • Fluid balance
 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bowman's_capsule". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
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