Renal corpuscle

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Renal corpuscle of Malpighi
Renal corpuscle.svg
The renal corpuscle in the cortex (outer layer) of the kidney. At the top, the renal corpuscle containing the glomerulus. The filtered blood exits into the renal tubule, at right. At left, blood flows from the afferent arteriole (red), enters into the renal corpuscle and feeds the glomerulus; blood flows out of the efferent arteriole (blue).
Latin corpusculum renis
Gray's subject #253 1221





There are two poles in the renal corpuscle, a vascular pole, and a urinary pole. The vascular pole is where the afferent and efferent arterioles communicate with the glomerulus. The urinary pole is where the corpuscle opens into the lumen of the proximal convoluted tubule.

Fluid from blood in the glomerulus is collected in the Bowman's capsule to form "glomerular filtrate", which is then further processed along the nephron to form urine. The three types of filtration carried out in the Bowman's capsule are: 1) Basement Filtration 2) Visceral Filtration 3) Endothermic Filtration


A renal corpuscle is also known as a Malpighian corpuscle, named after Marcello Malpighi (1628–1694), an Italian physician and biologist. This name is not used widely anymore, probably to avoid confusion with a Malpighian corpuscle in the spleen.

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