Urea and ammonia metabolism and the control of renal nitrogen excretion

ID Weiner, WE Mitch, JM Sands - Clinical Journal of the American …, 2015 - journals.lww.com
Renal nitrogen metabolism primarily involves urea and ammonia metabolism, and is
essential to normal health. Urea is the largest circulating pool of nitrogen, excluding nitrogen
in circulating proteins, and its production changes in parallel to the degradation of dietary
and endogenous proteins. In addition to serving as a way to excrete nitrogen, urea transport,
mediated through specific urea transport proteins, mediates a central role in the urine
concentrating mechanism. Renal ammonia excretion, although often considered only in the …