Renal pyramids

Renal pyramids
Kidney anatomy, with pyramids labeled at right
1. Renal pyramid 2. Interlobular artery 3. Renal artery 4. Renal vein 5. Renal hilum 6. Renal pelvis 7. Ureter 8. Minor calyx 9. Renal capsule 10. Inferior renal capsule 11. Superior renal capsule 12. Interlobar vein 13. Nephron 14. Renal sinus 15. Major calyx 16. Renal papilla 17. Renal column
Details
System	Urinary system
Identifiers
Latin	Pyramides renales
Dorlands /Elsevier	p_03/13479070
TA	A08.1.01.029
FMA	74268
Anatomical terminology []

Renal pyramids (or malpighian pyramids or Malpighi's pyramids named after Marcello Malpighi, a seventeenth-century anatomist) are cone-shaped tissues of the kidney. In humans, the renal medulla is made up of 10 to 18 of these conical subdivisions. The broad base of each pyramid faces the renal cortex, and its , or papilla, points internally towards the pelvis. The pyramids appear striped because they are formed by straight parallel segments of nephrons and collecting ducts. The base of each pyramid originates at the corticomedullary border and the apex terminates in a papilla, which lies within a minor calyx, made of parallel bundles of urine collecting tubules.

Frontal section through the kidney