Water & Fluid

Homeostasis
Prof Dr Amir Rashid
 Instructional Objectives

 Water and its biochemical properties

 Various types of particles and solutions

 Fluid Homeostasis
 Water
 Predominant chemical component of all the living organisms
 Solvates a wide range of organic and inorganic molecule
 Directly participates as a reactant or product in many metabolic
reactions
 Serve as a vehicle for transport of solutes
 Closely associated with regulation of body temperature, fluid
balance and acid base balance
 Irregular tetrahedron structure
with O2 at its center

 The two H and the unshared

electrons occupy the corners of
the tetrahedron hence making
it a DIPOLE

 It is responsible for its

high dielectric constant

 ~ 105° angle between the two

hydrogen atoms
 The H atoms involved in
hydrogen bonding with
electronegative atoms e.g.
O, N and F
 ~40%
To perform cell specific functions e.g.
To make, store and utilize the energy
To repair and replicate itself

~20%
Acts as a delivery system e.g.
Brings nutrients and O2 to the cell
Removes waste products, CO2 and
toxins from cellular environment
 Auto Dissociation of Water
 Pure water / Dw is amphoteric in nature e.g. can donate and accept protons to form
H3O+(acid) and OH-(base)
 Water maintains a state of equilibrium but the equilibrium leans to the left side of the
water molecule equation
 Hence, the concentration of these ions is comparatively less in the water
 At room temperature, which is
25°C, the value of the water
ionization constant comes out to be
At temperature above 25°C, Kw is somewhat is more than 10-14 and
vise versa
 Weak Acids and Weak Bases
 This value is also known as the power (English) hence the use of the
term “p”
 Low pH values correspond to high concentrations of H+ and high pH
values correspond to low concentrations of H+
 Acids are proton donors and bases are proton acceptors
 Strong acids and bases (e.g. HCl and NaOH) completely dissociate into
anions and protons
 Weak acids and weak bases (CH3COOH and Ca(OH)2) dissociate partially
 Biochemical Significance of Kw
 We can also calculate pH from Kw
Kw = [H+] [OH-] As [H+] = [OH-]
Concentration of [H+] in pure water would be the square root of the Kw constant e.g.
[H+] = 1 X 10⁻⁷ mol² dm⁻⁶
Now, the pH of water is calculated by the formula:
pH = - log10 [H+]
By substituting the value of [H+] ions in pure water, we can calculate the pH
pH = - log10 [1 X 10⁻⁷]
Hence, the pH of water comes out to be 7 (neutral at 250C)
 pKa- acid dissociation constant
 It indicates how weak or powerful an acid is
 The Henderson-Hasselbalch equation provides a relationship
between the pH of acids and their pKa
Base

Acid
 Biomedical Importance
 Helpful in determining the pH of a solution
 To find concentrations of conjugate base, salt or acid if the pH is
known
 Routinely used in the treatment of acid-base abnormalities
(acidosis and alkalosis)
 Required to prepare a buffer of the desired pH
 Used to calculate the percent of a drug that exists in ionized form
or to determine the concentration of a drug across the biological
membrane
 Titration Curve
 Graphical representation of the pH of a solution during a titration
 It demonstrates the buffering action of a weak acid and its conjugate
base
 In a strong acid-strong base titration, the equivalence point is
reached when the moles of acid and base are equal and the pH is 7
 In a weak acid-strong base titration, the pH is greater than 7 at the
equivalence point
 In a strong acid-weak base titration, the pH is less than 7 at the
equivalence point
Particles and Solutions
 Particles
Classified according to their size in a solution e.g.
1. True solution particles
2. Colloidal particles
3. Suspension particles
 True Solution Particles
 Cannot be seen even with electron microscope
 Never settle out in the solution
 Colloidal Particles
 Can be seen by ultramicroscopy and
electron microscope
 Do not settle out of a solution
spontaneously
 Can be separated from solution by various
methods e.g. electrophoresis,
ultracentrifugation and ultrafiltration
 Suspension Particles

 Bigger than colloid particles

 Along with solvent they make suspension
 Settle down spontaneously
 Can be seen with naked eye and
ultramicroscopy
Types of Colloidal Solutions
 Osmosis
 Selective passage of solvent through a membrane
 It is a passive process and happens without any expenditure of
energy
 The membrane is permeable to solvent only and called semi
permeable membrane
 Such membranes can be natural (peritoneal / pericardial
membrane) or artificial
 Osmosis Different from Diffusion

 Osmosis is a process of movement of solvents through a semi-

permeable membrane from a region of lower solute
concentration to higher solute concentration

 On the contrary, diffusion does not require a semi-permeable

membrane to occur and the molecules move from a region of
higher concentration to lower concentration
 Osmotic Pressure

 Pressure required to stop water from diffusing through a

membrane by osmosis
 It is determined by the concentration of the solute
 When the concentration of the substances in the two areas in
contact is different, the substances will diffuse until the
concentration is uniform throughout
Osmotic pressure can be calculated using the equation:
Π=MRT

 Π denotes the osmotic pressure

 M is the molar concentration of the solute
 R is the gas constant
 T is the temperature
 Types of Osmosis

Exosmosis
When a substance is placed in a
hypertonic solution, the solvent
molecules move outside the cell and
the cell becomes flaccid or
undergoes plasmolysis
Endosmosis
When a substance is placed in a
hypotonic solution, the solvent
molecules move inside the cell and
the cell becomes turgid or
undergoes deplasmolysis
 Osmotic Solutions

There are three different types of solutions

 Isotonic Solution
 Hypertonic Solution
 Hypotonic Solution
 Significance of Osmosis
 It is essential for the survival of a cell as it influences the transport
of nutrients and the release of metabolic waste products
 It stabilizes the internal environment of a living organism by
maintaining the balance between water and intercellular fluid
levels
 Involved in the movement of water molecules between the cell
and cell organelles
 Osmosis induces cell turgor which regulates the movement of
plants and plant parts
 Importance of Semi permeable
Membrane
 Defined as a type of barrier that only lets certain materials pass through under
certain conditions
 Also known as selectively permeable membranes or partially permeable
membranes
 This is important for the survival of cells e.g. solvent molecules (typically water)
flow from one side of a cell membrane to the other by osmosis
 Examples of molecules that can diffuse across the cell membrane
Oxygen
Carbon dioxide
Steroid hormones, such as estrogen
 Surface Tension
 It is the attractive force in liquids that pulls surface molecules to
minimize the surface area
 It depends mainly upon the forces of attraction between the
particles within the given liquid and also upon the gas, solid, or
liquid in contact with it
Viscosity
 It is reciprocal to fluidity

 Viscosity is produced by the attraction of molecules with

one another, asymmetry in their structure and friction
produced when they flow past each other

 It can be determined by comparing with the fluidity of water

  

Ostwald’s visc
ometer
 Clinical Significance
 Viscosity of blood is 3-4 times higher than water
 Whereas, viscosity of serum / plasma is 1.4-1.8 times higher
than water
 It is due to blood cells and plasma proteins
 It is important in blood pressure and regulation of blood flow
 Increase blood viscosity can lead to Hyper viscosity syndrome
 Hyper viscosity Syndrome

Seen in following conditions

 Leukemias
 Polycythemia
 Macroglobulinemia ( Increased IgM)
 IgG myeloma and some collagenopathies e.g. SLE
 Treatment
Plasmapheresis
Removal of blood through a needle / catheter and circulating
it through a machine where the blood is separated into red
cells, white cells, platelets and plasma
The plasma along with plasma proteins are discarded and low
viscosity blood is transfused
 Regulation of Water Balance
Achieved by balancing daily water intake and output
Governed by feedback mechanisms that involve
 Hypothalamus (thirst center)
 Neurohypophysis
 Kidneys
 Thirst Mechanism

It is an osmoregulatory mechanism to increase water input

The thirst mechanism is activated in response to changes in water
volume and blood osmolality
Blood osmolality is primarily driven by the concentration of sodium
cations
The urge to drink results from a complex interplay of hormones and
neuronal responses that coordinate to increase water input and
contribute toward fluid balance and composition in the body
 Hormonal Regulation
 The kidneys filters 190 liters of blood and produce 1.5 liters of
urine/day
 Urine contains water, electrolytes and waste products
 The amount of water filtered from the blood and excreted as
urine is dependent on the amount of water in and the
electrolyte composition in the blood
 Water excretion by kidneys is tightly controlled by Vasopressin /
ADH of Posterior Pituitary
 Anti-diuretic Hormone (ADH)
 When blood become more concentrated, the osmo-receptor of
Hypothalamus send signals to posterior pituitary gland to release ADH
 ADH travel to the kidney via the blood as chemical messengers
 It causes reabsorption of water by increasing the permeability of distal
convoluted tubules and collecting ducts to water by opening water
channel
 Through water channels, water enter from glomerular filtrate to the
blood capillary, so that the volume of urine become less and hypertonic
 This phenomenon is known as Anti-diuresis
Too little amount of water intake
Excessive loss of water by sweating
Consumption of large amount of salt
 When intake of water is high, the process reversed
Release of ADH is inhibited, so the wall of DCT and
collecting duct become impermeable to water causing
large volume and hypotonic urine production.
The phenomenon is known as Diuresis
 Clinical Significance
 Deficiency of ADH or non-functional ADH production
causes a clinical disease called Diabetes insipidus

 The clinical sign is output of large volume of urine

frequently which is due to inadequately reabsorption
of water by DCT and the collecting duct
THANK YOU