Figure 1.

The functional unit of the kidney. The nephron, a functional unit of the kidney, consists of one glomerulus and the adjacent tubules. Blood enters the glomerulus through afferent arterioles, reaches glomerular capillaries for filtration, and exits the glomerulus via efferent arterioles. The glomerular filtration barrier consists of three layers comprising endothelial cells, the glomerular basement membrane, and podocytes. Mesangial cells are located within the capillary tuft. The internal surface of the BC is lined by parietal epithelial cells, which lead to the proximal convoluted tubule lined by proximal tubular epithelial cells. Fluids from glomerular capillaries are collected in the Bowman’s space and further processed within the tubular system to form the urine. Figure has been created with BioRender.com (accessed on 6 April 2022).