Water Movement Across Cell Membrane 1

Water Movement Across Cell Membrane

Tyler Alexander
Honors Biology Period 3
Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic
April 30, 2018
 Water Movement Across Cell Membrane 2

Introduction

Passive transport is a type of cellular transport. This occurs when substances move along with

the concentration gradient. Since it follows this gradient (High to low) it does not involve any

chemical energy. (Biology Online 2017). However, the cell membrane is still selectively

permeable which means it regulates the passage of substances through the membrane. This helps

it maintain homeostasis. (Biology Online 2017). Osmosis is a type of passive transport where

water moves through the cell membrane into a solution where the solvent concentration is

higher. (Dictionary.com 2018). There are three different environments a cell can be in. These are

hypotonic, hypertonic, and isotonic. A hypotonic environment is when water rushes into a cell

and can cause the cell to rupture or burst. A hypertonic environment is the opposite. In this

environment water rushes out of the cell causing it to shrink or shrivel. An isotonic environment

is when a cell is in the ideal environment. (Hawaii.edu 2017). Osmosis is present in everyday life

and is a key to keeping cells healthy. One example of osmosis in life is the pruning of fingers in

a bathtub. The reason this occurs is because the cells are put into a hypotonic environment.

Water rushes into the cells attempting to create equilibrium. As this happens the cells expand

causing pruning. (Gemma 2014). The reason that dialysis tubing was used in this lab is because it

is a semipermeable membrane similar to a cell membrane. (Sigma-Aldrich 2018). The purposes

of this lab were to see how a cell’s mass changes when put into different environments, what a

cell membrane is permeable to, and how osmosis happens across a cell membrane. For this lab

the first cell that was filled with water and put in water was in an isotonic environment because

the particles in the cell are that same as the outside. The cells that were filled with 20%, 40%,

and 60% glucose solution were placed into a hypotonic environment. The cell that was filled

with water and placed into a 60% glucose solution was placed in a hypertonic environment.
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Lastly, the cell filled with 80% and placed in 60% was placed into a hypotonic environment. For

part 1 the independent variable is the percent of glucose solution that is put into the simulated

cell. The dependent variable is the mass of the cell throughout the experiment. For part 2 the

independent variable would be the simulated cell filled with starch. The dependent variable

would then be if the inside of the cell or the water changed colors. The constants for part 1 are

the dialysis tubing, size of beaker, and amount of water the cell is put into. For part 1 the control

group is the simulated cell filled with water and placed into water. The experimental group is the

other simulated cells filled with different glucose solutions. The constants for part 2 are the

dialysis tubing, starch, beaker, drops of iodine, and amount of water. There is no control group

and the experimental group is the one filled with starch and placed in water. If a simulated cell is

filled with pure water and placed into pure water, then it’s mass will stay relatively the same. If a

simulated cell is filled with 20% glucose solution and placed into pure water, then its mass will

increase. If a simulated cell is filled with 40% glucose solution and is placed into pure water,

then its mass will increase. If a simulated cell is filled with 60% glucose solution and is placed in

pure water, then it’s mass will increase rapidly. If a simulated cell is filled with pure water and

placed into 60% glucose solution, then it’s mass will decrease. If a simulated cell is filled with

80% glucose solution and placed into 60% glucose solution, then its mass will slowly increase.

For part 2, if the inside of the cell turns blue, then the cell is permeable to water. If the water

around the cell turns blue, then the cell is permeable to starch.

Materials

-Dialysis Tubing

-6 Beakers
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-Starch

-Scale

-Water

-String

-Iodine

-Glucose solution

Procedures

Part I

1. 6 beakers were set up. 4 of these beakers were filled with 200 ml of pure water.

2. 2 of these beakers was filled with 200 ml of 60% glucose solution.

3. Then 6 simulated cells were created using dialysis tubing.

4. One of the cells were filled with 5ml of pure water and placed into a beaker.

5. Another was filled with 5ml of 20% glucose solution and placed in a beaker.

6. The third simulated cell was filled with 5ml of 40% glucose solution and placed in a

beaker.

7. The fourth cell was filled with 5ml of 60% glucose solution and placed in a beaker.

8. The fifth was filled with 5ml of water and placed in the 60% glucose solution.

9. The sixth was filled with 5ml of 80% glucose solution and placed in the 60% glucose

solution.
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Part 2:

1. Another beaker was filled halfway with water.

2. A simulated cell was created and filled with starch.

3. This was then placed in the beaker filled halfway with water

4. Then, 20 drops of iodine were put into the beaker.

Results

Part 1:

For this part in the lab the increase of mass was being tested. For the cell that was water in water

the mass increased from 0mg to 208mg in the first 3 minutes. It then increased another 83mg

from 3-6 minutes. From there it decreased 42mg from 6-9 minutes. For the simulated cell that

was filled with 20% glucose solution the mass increased from 0mg to 317mg in the first 3

minutes. From 3-6 minutes it gained 217mg in mass. From 6-9 minutes it kept increasing adding

on another 167mg of mass. For the simulated cell filled with 40% glucose solution its mass

increased by 408mg from 0-3 minutes. From 3-6 minutes it increased to 800mg. And again from

6-9 minutes increased to 1,108mg. For the simulated cell filled with 60% glucose solution the

mass increased by 567mg in the first 3 minutes. By 6 minutes the cell’s mass was at 1,009mg.

From 6-9 minutes the cell’s mass increased to 1,409mg. For the cell that was filled with water

and placed in 60% glucose solution its mass decreased by 150mg. It decreased again to -533mg

from 3-6 minutes. From 6-9 minutes the mass of the cell decreased to -783mg. For the simulated

cell filled with 80% glucose solution and put in 60% the mass in the first 3 minutes increased

241mg. From 3-6 minutes the mass increased to 316mg. By 9 minutes the cell’s mass was 399.
 Water Movement Across Cell Membrane 6

Table 1: Mass of Cells Over Time

Water in 20 % in 40% in 60% in Water in 80% in
Time Water Water Water Water 60% 60%
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 208 317 408 567 -150 241
6 291 534 800 1009 -533 316
9 249 701 1108 1409 -783 399
Description: Mass changes from 0-3, 3-6, and 6-9 minutes were averaged from different classes.
To show change in mass on a graph you need masses at 0, 3, 6, and 9 minutes. Since each had a
different mass in the beginning all were started at 0. The average change in mass over these
times were added on to the previous numbers. The masses were then used to determine the mass
at 3, 6, and 9 minutes.

Mass in Miligrams vs Time in Min

2000

1500

1000
Mass in Milligrams

500

0
0 3 6 9

-500

-1000
Time in Min.
Water in Water 20% in Water

40% in Water 60% in Water

Water in 60%+Sheet1!$N$3 80% in 60%

Figure 1: Mass vs Time

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Description: In this graph you see the change in the cell’s simulated mass throughout the lab.
The X axis shows the time from 0 to 9 minutes. The Y-axis shows the mass of the cells in
milligrams. As the time passed the simulated cells, represented by the lines, change their mass.
This is shown by the lines either going upwards or downwards.
Part 2:

The inside of the simulated cell for this portion of the lab turned a blue color while the water

outside of the cell remained the same.

Discussion

The reason that some cells loss weight while others gained weight is due to the environment it is

placed in. The cells that were placed into a hypotonic environment seemed to gain weight while

those placed into a hypertonic environment lost weight due to water leaving the cell. As the cell

becomes closer to equilibrium the process of osmosis slows down and this is shy the gaining or

loosing of weight slows down as the time goes on. When there is a higher concentration gradient

the rate of osmosis is faster causing the cell to gain or loose mass faster. The reason that the

80/60 cell did not gain as much weight in the first 3 minutes as the 20/0 was because the 80/60

cell was closer to equilibrium than the 20/0. In the second part of the lab, the reason the inside of

the cell turned blue was because the dialysis tubing was permeable to the water outside of the

cell. This cause the water with the iodine to flow into the cell filled with starch. When this mixes

it results in a blue color. Some errors that could have occurred during this lab are the cells not

being the same weight to start, undetectable holes in the tubing, human error calculating the mass

of the cells, and the simulated cells did not sit long enough in the liquid they were placed in. One

change to this lab could be making sure that all the cells are even in mass to begin.

References
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“Dialysis Tubing.” Sigma-Aldrich, www.sigmaaldrich.com/technical-

documents/articles/labware/dialysis-tubing.html.

Hypertonic and Hypotonic Environments. (n.d.). Retrieved April 28, 2018, from

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~johnb/micro/m140/syllabus/week/handouts/m140.9.2.html

Osmosis. (n.d.). Retrieved April 28, 2018, from http://www.dictionary.com/browse/osmosis

Passive transport. (n.d.). Retrieved April 28, 2018, from https://www.biology-

online.org/dictionary/Passive_transport

Selective permeability. (n.d.). Retrieved April 28, 2018, from https://www.biology-

online.org/dictionary/Selective_permeability