Cell Physiology L2/3: Osmosis and Diffusion Flashcards
What is homeostasis?
maintain a stable internal environment for all those critical physiological processes to occur
How is homeostasis maintained?
- Each cell contributes by the exchange of nutrients to and from the intra- and extra-cellular fluid in specialised ways.
- Done by cell membrane
What does the phospholipid bilayer consist of?
- Hydrophilic (polar heads)
- Hydrophobic (non-polar tails)
What is the structural function of the phospholipid bilayer?
Gives cells shape
Is the phospholipid layer flexible? Explain.
Yes, is flexible
- Allows cells to change shape
Does the phospholipid layer acts as a barrier? Explain.
Yes, is a barrier
- Prevents water soluble substances passing through
What is the phospholipid layer permeable to? Explain.
Permeable to:
- Lipid-soluble molecules (eg. steroid)
- Small uncharged molecules (eg. O2, CO2, urea can move freely between phospholipids)
What is the phospholipid layer impermeable to? Explain.
Impermeable to:
- ions & large molecules (e.g. sodium, proteins, glucose)
Is the phospholipid layer permeable to H20?
Yes, but is a bit more tricky- thorough osmosis
What simple diffusion?
Anything which passes directly through the bilayer
How does simple diffusion occur?
- Driven by concentration gradient
- The bigger the gradient (difference) –> faster the molecules will pass through
What are the 2 things that the movement across a membrane depends on?
- Concentration gradient
- Permeability of membrane
What is Fick’s Law?
All factors affect simple diffusion through a membrane
What is osmosis?
Movement of water from a high water concentration to a low water concentration
- Water moves from high [water] low [water]
- Low [solute] –> high [solute]
Why would osmosis not occur?
- Water moves down its (concentration) activity gradient o No activity = no osmosis
- Water activity same on both sides because [solute] same on both sides.
- No net flux
For osmosis, in the presence of solutes, there will be _____ (increased/decreased activity)? Why?
Decreased; water is a solvent
If there is a non-penetrating solute occurring on one side of the membrane, will osmosis occur? How?
Yes, water activity gradient
- Net flux to the side of the non-penetrating solute
Do all solutes behave the same in terms of influencing water activity, and thus osmosis?
No- differ in 2 ways
What are the 2 different ways that solutes behave, which influences water activity and in turn osmosis?
- Whether they are (as already considered)
- membrane penetrating (e.g. urea), or
- non-penetrating (e.g. glucose and ions).
- Whether they dissociate in solution.
- e.g. compare solutions of glucose and sodium chloride (NaCl)
- Break apart = more particles in water = eg. NaCl = Na+2 + Cl- = higher solute concentration = need twice as much water = water activity is lowest and every molecule dissociates into 2 ions.
How do we describe the difference between solutions that contain solutes that dissociate in solution and those that do not?
Osmolarity of solution
What is osmolarity (equation)? Use glucose and NaCl as examples.
Osmolarity of a solution = ∑ {(solute concentration) x (#dissociated species)}
E.g.
- 1M glucose = (1M x 1) = 1 Osmolar (OsM)
- 1M NaCl = (1M x 2) = 2 Osmolar (OsM)
- 2M CaCl2 + 0.5M KCl = (2M x 3) CaCl2 + (0.5M x 2) KCl = 7 OsM
N.B. Water activity is inversely proportional to osmolarity (i.e. water activity is low when osmolarity is high)
Water activity is __________(proportional/inversely proportional) to osmolarity.
inversely proportional (i.e. water activity is low when osmolarity is high)