Author Description

This new section of the Handbook of Physiology provides a comprehensive and authoritative account of current knowledge about kidney function. The early chapters emphasize structure, and relationships between structure and function. Tissue culture and renal micropuncture are among the many techniques discussed in detail. The physiology of non-renal tissues that serve as models of tubule function, comparative physiology, and developmental aspects of kidney function are similarly discussed. Glomerular filtration and mechanisms of transport of different solutes in water at the level of plasma membranes, of renal tubules, and of the whole kidney are covered in depth. The concentrating mechanism, the regulation of kidney function, including its relation to blood pressure homeostasis, and kidney-bone interactions are also reviewed in detail. Chapters on the biochemistry and metabolism of the kidney, diuretics, and erythropoietin round off the discussion. These two volumes offer the most up-to-date, comprehensive and authoritative coverage of kidney function available. Ninety international authorities present modern concepts of renal function, including the biochemistry, cell biology, and morphology of the kidney. Experimental techniques to study renal function are given detailed treatment. The chapters span the entire range of knowledge about kidney function, from the level of the plasma membrane to whole organ function, regulation and integration of kidney function into whole body homeostasis.