Explain the terms ultrafiltration and selective absorption.

Ultrafiltration is the process of filtration of the blood which takes place in the glomerulus part of the kidney. The blood containing urea from the afferent arteriole enters the glomerulus under high pressure. The high pressure is created because the efferent arteriole is narrower than the afferent arteriole. The high pressure causes the liquid part of the blood to filter out from the glomerulus into the renal tubule. This filtrate is known as ‘glomerular filtrate’.

Glomerular filtrate consists of water, urea, salts, glucose and other plasma solutes. Blood corpuscles, proteins, and other large molecules remain behind in the glomerulus. Therefore the blood which is carried away by the efferent arteriole is relatively thick.

Selective absorption – The Glomerular filtrate entering the renal tubule contains a lot of usable materials such as glucose and sodium. As this filtrate passes down the renal tubule, a lot of water along with these usable materials is reabsorbed. Such reabsorption is called ‘selective absorption’. The reabsorption occurs only to the extent that the normal concentration of the blood is undisturbed.