nephron
The basic functional unit of the kidney. its chief function is to regulate the concentration of water and soluble substances like sodium salts by filtering the blood, reabsorbing what is needed and excreting the rest as urine. A nephron eliminates wastes from the body, regulates blood volume and blood pressure, controls levels of electrolytes and metabolites, and regulates blood pH. Its functions are vital to life and are regulated by the endocrine system by hormones such as antidiuretic hormone, aldosterone, and parathyroid hormone.[WP]. Every claim on this page comes from the Leumas anatomy graph and carries its source.
What the nephron is
The basic functional unit of the kidney. its chief function is to regulate the concentration of water and soluble substances like sodium salts by filtering the blood, reabsorbing what is needed and excreting the rest as urine. A nephron eliminates wastes from the body, regulates blood volume and blood pressure, controls levels of electrolytes and metabolites, and regulates blood pH. Its functions are vital to life and are regulated by the endocrine system by hormones such as antidiuretic hormone, aldosterone, and parathyroid hormone.[WP]. The atlas records it as a organ at the organ scale in the human body.
Where the nephron is
It sits in the abdomen and trunk, within the urinary system. Not positioned individually. Drawn inside the structure this dataset says contains it — the containment is asserted, the exact spot within it is not.
What the nephron connects to
The atlas records 26 typed relationships for it, across 7 kinds of connection. part of uriniferous tubule and renal lobule.
Supply and innervation
Arterial supply: renal afferent arteriole.
Also called
Also recorded as mature nephron, nephroneum and tubulus renalis. Searching any of those names reaches this page.
Source
Uberon multi-species anatomy ontology (Mungall et al.), CC BY 4.0. Term UBERON:0001285, version 2026-06-19, retrieved 2026-08-24. Licence: CC-BY-4.0.
- Part of: uriniferous tubule and renal lobule.
- A kind of: organ part.
- contains: collecting duct of renal tubule, glomerular epithelium, kidney loop of Henle long descending thin limb inner medulla, kidney loop of Henle long descending thin limb outer medulla, macula densa and nephron tubule, and 3 more.
- Develops from: abdomen, abdominal segment of trunk, body proper, kidney, multicellular organism and renal system, and 2 more.
- contributes to morphology of: kidney, nephron tubule and renal corpuscle.
- subtype: long nephron and short nephron.
- Supplied by: renal afferent arteriole.
Questions
Where is the nephron?
It sits in the abdomen and trunk, within the urinary system. Not positioned individually. Drawn inside the structure this dataset says contains it — the containment is asserted, the exact spot within it is not.
What does the nephron connect to?
Part of: uriniferous tubule and renal lobule.
Is the nephron the same in other species?
Leumas holds the same relationship vocabulary for every species it carries, so where another dataset records this structure you can put the two side by side on /compare.