Mondo Knows Facts
The kidney concentrates urine with a salt gradient
Loops of Henle build a salty interior that draws water out of the collecting duct The loop dips deep into the kidney medulla, pumping salt out of its thick limb while staying permeable to water in its thin limb. This builds a steep gradient from cortex to pelvis. Urine passing down the collecting duct loses water into that salty tissue, concentrating it up to four times. It sits in Mondo's human body collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
Go further
More facts like this
The kidneys release a hormone when oxygen runs lowSpecialised kidney cells detect low oxygen and release erythropoietin into the bloodAldosterone tells the kidney to hold on to sodiumThis adrenal hormone increases sodium reabsorption while pushing potassium outEach adrenal gland is two glands in oneAn outer cortex makes steroid hormones and an inner medulla makes adrenalineThe kidneys take a quarter of every heartbeatThough they weigh little, the kidneys receive roughly a fifth to a quarter of cardiac outputOsmosis drives water through membranes toward higher solute concentrationSolute gradients push solvent molecules to equalize concentrations across barriersThe liver turns nitrogen waste into ureaA five step cycle in liver cells packages ammonia into a safer molecule for excretion
🫀 Human Bodyfact 166 of 200
← → to keep reading, or swipe
Tags: kidney, urine, osmosis
The kidney concentrates urine with a salt gradient: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Loops of Henle build a salty interior that draws water out of the collecting duct. The figure is taken from National Kidney Foundation, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a human body fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Human Body shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.