if the person has defective kidneys, how will the concentration of substances get affected?
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Answer:
The kidneys meet these challenges through a remarkably elegant system. Essentially, kidneys act like dialysis units for blood, making use of the different sizes of the particles and specially-maintained concentration gradients. Blood passes through the membrane-lined tubules of the kidney, which are analogous to the dialysis bags used in this Experiment. Particles that can pass through the membrane pass out of the tubules by diffusion, thus separating the particles that remain in the blood from those that will be removed from the blood and excreted. The dialysis mechanism used by the kidneys allows them to function effectively over a very wide range of conditions. For example, sodium intake can vary from one tenth to ten times the average consumption, with only minimal fluctuations in blood-plasma sodium concentrations. Even when the kidneys are severely damaged, the kidneys can still effectively maintain the body's chemistry as long as at least ten percent of their functional units are working. Nonetheless, damage to the kidneys can cause the functional capacity to drop below this level, and fatal illness will develop unless an artificial system is employed to perform the work of the kidneys.