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Description
The main function of kidneys is to remove metabolic waste while maintaining constant blood composition and volume. The first step of this process is a filtration through the glomerular capillary wall which has three different layers: the endothelium cell layer, the glomerular basement membrane (GBM) and the epithelial foot process with its interconnecting slit diaphragm. Photographs from electron microscopy have shown the epithelial slit diaphragm to be a planar arrangement of interconnected fibers with non-uniform spacing. With recent advancements in nanowire creation using lithography, in our work, the possibility of constructing an artificial epithelial slit is explored through a computer simulation. The slit diaphragm is modeled as a row of parallel cylindrical fibers with spacing between fibers following the normal distribution and the gamma distribution. The dimensionless flow resistance is calculated using the finite element method. Employing the Newton-Raphson’s method, a standard deviation of spacing between fibers that yields appropriate hydraulic permeability can be obtained for given values of fiber radii and mean fiber spacing. The relationships between hydraulic permeability across the epithelial slit and various parameters such as fiber radii and standard deviation of sizes of spacing between fibers, are also obtained.
