Micropuncture: unlocking the secrets of renal function.

This essay looks at the historical significance of five APS classic papers that are freely available online: Wearn JT and Richards AN. Observations on the composition of glomerular urine, with particular reference to the problem of reabsorption in the renal tubules. Am J Physiol 71: 209-227, 1924 (http://ajplegacy.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/71/1/209). Richards AN and Walker AM. Methods of collecting fluid from known regions of the renal tubules of Amphibia and of perfusing the lumen of a single tubule. Am J Physiol 118: 111-120, 1936 (http://ajplegacy.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/118/1/111). Walker AM and Hudson CL. The reabsorption of glucose from the renal tubule in Amphibia and the action of phlorhizin upon it. Am J Physiol 118: 130-143, 1936 (http://ajplegacy.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/118/1/130). Walker AM and Oliver J. Methods for the collection of fluid from single glomeruli and tubules of the mammalian kidney. Am J Physiol 134: 562-579, 1941 (http://ajplegacy.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/134/3/562). Walker AM, Bott PA, Oliver J, and MacDowell MC. The collection and analysis of fluid from single nephrons of the mammalian kidney. Am J Physiol 134: 580-595, 1941 (http://ajplegacy.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/134/3/580).