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Kidneys
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The kidneys are two organs devoted to cleaning the blood: they pull out what is left over, waste and extra water, and build urine out of it. The fine work is not done by the whole kidney all at once, but by tiny structures inside it called nephrons, and each nephron works in two stages.
First comes the glomerulus, which filters the blood and lets a fluid pass through. Then comes the tubule, which goes back over that fluid and rescues whatever the body still needs so it can be returned, while what is no longer useful stays behind and ends up as urine. It is like dumping a whole drawer out onto the table and then putting back only the things you actually use. The kidneys also keep a close hold on how much water and how much salt the body has, and how acidic it is, and on top of all that they make hormones.
In brief
The kidneys are two organs that filter the blood, removing waste and extra water to form urine.
Each kidney contains nephrons. Inside each one, the glomerulus filters the blood and the tubule returns what the body still needs, leaving waste in the fluid that will become urine.
Think of two connected stages: first, filtration by the glomerulus; then, fine-tuning by the tubule.
The kidneys also help regulate the body's water, salt, and acid-base balance, and they produce hormones.
Sources (1)
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney DiseasesYour Kidneys & How They WorkPublished
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