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Kidney Dialysis:
The Living Connection

Note: These questions go along with an article in the April 2001 issue of ChemMatters, published by the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Students should read the article and then be led in a brief discussion of the content. Special attention to key words such as filtrate, diffusion, osmosis, porous membrane, urea, creatinine, dialysis, hemodialysis, and dialysate.

Answer the following questions using complete sentences. Rephrase the question as part of your answer.

For example, Question: What should I do to get a good grade? Answer: To get a good grade you should pay attention, work hard, and hand your work in on time.

  1. Write words or concepts here that you would like to have explained during class discussion of this article. It is expected that you will write at least five words you don’t know in this section and that you will write down some notes about their definition during discussion.
  2. What is the function of the kidney in the human body?
  3. What is a nephron and what does it do?
  4. In the nephron is a piece of tissue called a glomerulus. What does it do and how does it do it?
  5. How does the nephron prevent good and useful things like water, glucose and essential salts from being thrown away with waste products?
  6. How do dialysis membranes differ from the filter apparatus in the kidney?


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  1. Why does the solution on the other side of a membrane from the person’s blood have to contain glucose, salts, and amino acids, etc.?
  2. How does using the synthetic polymer mixture to make dialsysis membranes improve the precision of filtration?
  3. Why do dialysis patients have to take supplements of iron and calcium and what does it have to do with the size of the pores in the dialysis membrane?
  4. Why do dialysis patients have to limit the amount of protein in their diets?
  5. How would you deal with it if you were diagnosed with kidney failure and you had to go on dialysis?
Last updated: May 13, 2007       Home