Lesson 1
A crowded little spot
After the U-shaped loop, each kidney tube comes back up and touches the blood vessels of its own filter.
Right where it touches, the tube wall has a patch of tall, skinny cells squeezed close together. This patch is the macula densa.
Wow!Macula densa means dense spot in Latin. The cells are packed so tightly that their nuclei look crowded under a microscope!
Lesson 2
Tasting the salt
- The cells sense how much salt is in the fluid flowing by.
- Too much salt can mean the filter is working too fast. They send a signal to slow it down.
- Too little salt sends a different signal. That can tell the nearby juxtaglomerular cells to release renin.
It is like a feedback loop, checking and adjusting all day long.
Try thisPress Sense the salt on the 3D model, then press Send a signal.