glomerulus

[ad_1] noun, plural glo·mer·u·li [gloh-mer-yuh-lahy, gluh-] /gloʊˈmɛr yəˌlaɪ, glə-/. Anatomy.

1. a compact cluster of capillaries.
2. Also called Malpighian tuft. a tuft of convoluted capillaries in the nephron of a kidney, functioning to remove certain substances from the blood before it flows into the convoluted tubule.

noun plural -li (-ˌlaɪ)

1. a knot of blood vessels in the kidney projecting into the capsular end of a urine-secreting tubule
2. any cluster or coil of blood vessels, nerve fibres, etc, in the body

n. pl. glo•mer•u•li (-lī′)

1. A small cluster or intertwined mass.
2. A tuft of capillaries situated within a Bowman’s capsule at the end of a renal tubule in the vertebrate kidney that filters waste products from the blood and thus initiates urine formation.
3. The twisted secretory portion of a sweat gland.
4. A nerve ending consisting of a cluster of dendritic ramifications and axon terminals surrounded by a glial sheath.

Plural glomeruli (glō-mĕr′yə-lī′)

1. A knot of highly permeable capillaries located within the Bowman’s capsule of a nephron. Waste products are filtered from the blood in the glomerulus, initiating the process of urine formation.

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