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glomerulus

glomerulus

9.9
A small group of blood vessels in the kidney that filters blood to make urine
  • noun
  • /ɡloʊˈmɛrələs/
  • Specialized
translation icon : glomerulo
  • Each glomerulus receives inputs from one single type of odorant receptor (the color-coding above should explain that better than words can).
  • human glomerulus

Examples

  • Each glomerulus consists of a network of small blood vessels that filter waste from the blood.

  • You can see that the blood comes in, it goes to the glomeruli, it gets filtered, it goes back in and goes back into the vein.

  • The glomerulus is where these two sets of tubules meet.

  • It's the rate at which filtrate is being produced in all the glomeruli of our kidneys.

  • So this structure that surrounds the glomerulus, it's called the proximal tubule.

  • Myoglobin is filtered by the glomerulus, initially appearing as casts.

    Academic text (2005)
  • When a receptor (on a cilia) is activated by its respective odorant molecule, a signal is sent upward to a glomerulus (see above picture).

    Blog text (20)
  • The glomerulus filters blood to form urine in the kidneys.

  • In the human kidney, the glomerulus plays a crucial role in the urinary filtration process.

Surface Forms

glomerulus singular
glomeruli plural

Etymology

Glomerulus comes from the Latin root glomus, meaning 'ball', plus the small ending -ulus, meaning 'little', so it literally means a 'small ball'. In the kidney a glomerulus is a tiny ball-like group of blood vessels that acts as a filter, which is why the name fits.