Good afternoon, I’m Maria Louvella Asis, together with my groupmates we will be reporting the Lab

activity held last week entitled Cell Transport.

OBJECTIVES:
MATERIALS:
Procedure:

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From the activity we can obtain the following results.
-From the results we obtained, we can apply the principle of tonicity

In isotonic, the cells will not shrink or swell because the water concentration in the intracellular and
extracellular fluids is equal and the solutes cannot enter or leave the cell.

In hypotonic, water will diffuse into the cell, resulting to volume increase; water will continue to diffuse
into the cell, diluting the intracellular fluid while also concentrating the extracellular fluid until both
solutions have about the same osmolarity. Solutions of sodium chloride with a concentration of less
than 0.9 percent are hypotonic and cause cells to swell.

If a cell is placed in a hypertonic solution having a higher concentration of impermeant solutes, water
will flow out of the cell into the extracellular fluid, concentrating the intracellular fluid and diluting the
extracellular fluid. In this case, the cell will shrink until the two concentrations become equal. Sodium
chloride solutions of greater than 0.9 percent are hypertonic.

The tonicity of solutions depends on the concentration of impermeant solutes. Some solutes, can
penetrate in to the cell membrane. Solutions with an osmolarity the same as the cell are called
isosmotic, regardless of whether the solute can penetrate the cell membrane.

CELL MEMBRANE
Cell It constitutes a barrier against movement of water molecules and water-soluble substances
between the extracellular and intracellular fluid compartments.
Selective permeability-regulates transport of molecules into and out of the cell
Asymmetry meaning sides of the membrane are structurally and functionally different. This
includes differences in the protein, lipids, carbohydrate composition, positioning of these
proteins and enzymatic activities of the both sides of the membrane.
Permeability barrier-maintains the differences in ionic composition and establishes ionic
gradients between the extracellular and intracellular compartments.
PROTEINS:
The protein composition of membranes varies from cell to cell, reflecting functional specialization. The
plasma membrane consists of almost entirely of a lipid bilayer with association with protein. These
proteins can be classified as integral or peripheral. Proteins of which penetrate all the way through the
membrane is called integral protein. Peripheral proteins may be associated with the polar head groups
of the membrane lipids, but they more commonly bind to integral or lipid-anchored proteins. They may
be loosely bound in the in outer or inner leaflet of the cell membrane.

Many integral membrane proteins span the bilayer; these proteins are also called transmembrane
proteins. Transmembrane proteins have both hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions. The hydrophobic
region spans the membrane while hydrophilic amino acid residues are exposed to the aqueous
environment on either side of the membrane. Transmembrane proteins may pass through the
membrane multiple times. Many of these penetrating proteins can function as transport proteins,
channel proteins and carrier proteins. This will be further discuss in the next slides.

PHOSPHOLIPIDS:

Phospholipid is the major component of cell membrane. Phospholipids are presented as amphipathic
molecules that contain a charged (or polar) hydrophilic head and two (nonpolar) hydrophobic fatty acyl
chains. The amphipathic nature of the phospholipid molecule is important for the formation of the
bilayer. The phospholipid composition of the membrane varies among different cell types and even
between the bilayer leaflets. For some cells like RBC, the phosphatidylserine and sphingomyelin
predominates the outer leaflet while phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylserine dominates the
inner leaflet.

CHOLESTEROL:

Cholesterol is an important component of the bilayer. It can be found in both leaflets and serves to
stabilize/maintain the membrane at normal body temperature (37°C). They are also represented as
amphipathic because they are oriented with their polar groups on the outer surface of the leaflet. Their
hydrophobic portion is thus located within the interior of the bilayer.

Cholesterol has hydrophobic region at the inner most part of the bilayer in between the tails of the
chains. Without these cholesterols, if we lower the temperature, the phospholipid will come close to
each other resulting to crystallization of phospholipids. If we raise the temperature, phospholipids move
farther apart from each other making the bilayer too soft and the selective permeability will be lost. So
these cholesterol do is that it prevents the membrane from extreme fluidity. It adds firmness and
integrity to the plasma membrane by maintaining acceptable fluidity.

OTHER LIPIDS:

Sphingolipids are derived from the amino alcohol sphingosine, also have hydrophobic and hydrophilic
groups. They are present in small amounts in the cell membranes, especially nerve cells. Complex forms
of these sphingolipids may serve several functions like protection from harmful environmental factors,
signal transmission, and as adhesion sites for extracellular proteins.
Another minor lipid component of the plasma membrane is glycolipids. These lipids consist of two fatty
acyl chains linked to polar head groups that consist of carbohydrates. These glycolipids glycoconjugates
of lipids that can be found in the outer membrane and may function as facilitate cell-cell interaction.

CARBOHYDRATES:

These carbohydrates serve a minimal structural function for the membrane. These carbohydrates occur
with protein and lipids forming glycoprotein or glycolipid respectively. Carbohydrates component
attached to the outer surface have several functions. So as illustrated, on the right side we can see a
carbohydrate occur with a protein forming a glycoprotein. On the leftward direction, a carbohydrate
occurs with lipid forming glycolipid. Many other carbohydrate compounds, called proteoglycans—which
are mainly carbohydrate substances bound to small protein cores—are loosely attached to the outer
surface of the cell as well. Thus, the entire outside surface of the cell often has a loose carbohydrate
coat called the glycocalyx. Collectively, these glycoprotein and glycolipids form the glycocalyx.
Depending on cell type, these glycoproteins and glycolipids (collectively glycocalyx) serve several like for
additional outer covering, cell recognition, also cell to cell interactions.