The pathogenesis of developmental and acquired renal abnormalities in paediatric refluxive and obstructive disease

Abstract

The nephron, the functional unit of the human excretory system. is similar in its essential features in all vertebrate classes from cyclostomes to mammals (Torrey. 1965). Differences between classes are created mainly by the spatial organisation of nephrons within the organism and it has therefore become customary to distinguish three spatially and temporally different excretory organs: the pronephros, the mesonephros, and the metanephros