When medical science diagnoses kidney insufficiency or kidney failure, it’s often imagined as if the kidney were a kind of “pasta strainer” whose holes become clogged over time, due to improper use, infection, or another disease. This leads to the accumulation of toxins in the body and a reduction—or eventual cessation—of urine output.

While the kidney’s primary function is indeed the continuous filtration of blood, the various germ-layer-derived tissues within the organ support our functioning in different ways and respond differently to environmental changes or the demands arising from such changes.