Investigation of the Permeability of the Erythrocytes Membranes and Membrane Osmotic Properties

Membrane Properties of Erythrocytes
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Title
Instructor
Date
Membrane Properties of Erythrocytes
Discussion
The first part of the experiment involved an investigation into the permeability of the erythrocytes membranes using different solutions with chemical compounds varying in their properties. The first aspect to be investigated involved the presence of urea and water to establish a reference point that was required in the experiment. Such a reference point is crucial in determining the effects of hemolysis such as the change in color and opacity in the solution. The observations we made was that the tubes cleared and the solution became clear red. With the different hypotonic solutions of NaCl prepared and mixed with the blood samples, this step was to measure the time it takes for the cells to hemolyse at different NaCl concentrations and determine the highest NaCl concentration that would induce hemolysis in red blood cells. The results obtained indicated that a 110 mM of NaCl appears to be the maximum concentration that could allow for the erythrocytes hemolysis because the tube containing 120mM of NaCl concentration failed to cause hemolysis of within an hour. This observation shows that hemolysis is only induced after a given concentration has been reached. The experiment also investigated the effect of molecular size on the process of hemolysis and urea was found to exhibit the fastest time of hemolysis while D-ribose was slowest. This implies that the hydrophobic bilayer of the cell membrane easily lets in non-polar substances, including thiourea and urea. In the membrane, each lipid moieties are closely packed making it challenging for the nearby liquid and proteins to pass. The next step was to test the effect of liquid solubility on the same red blood cells. To achieve this objective, was to utilize different solutions with varying differences in mixing abilities with the blood samples obtained and the times of hemolysis recorded. While N-ethanol was found to cause faster hemolysis, glycerol was the slowest. This observation shows that the more a molecule is more hydrophilic the easier for it to penetrate the membrane.
The next part of the laboratory experiment involved the investigation into the various membrane osmotic properties. In the first step, blood samples were mixed with different concentrations of saline solutions then processed via an osmometer that g...