Practical of urinary system (osmoregulation)

Abstract:
this experiment was carried out to determine the effect of different factors on the bladder and urine
volume. The participants were divided into 4 different groups, group A, consumed water; group B
consumed coffee; group C were given an exercise to do: group D didn’t consume or do anything. The
volume of the excreted urine from each subject was measured and recorded every 20 minutes over
a 60 minutes timespan. It was found that group B produced the most amount of urine volume,
following that group A had the second most urine volume, then group C produced more urine
volume at 0 mins (baseline) than the D group, and then for the 20 and 40 mins time intervals they
both produced the same amount of volume and at 60 mins the C group shows a decrease in urine
volume and that’s due to losing water through sweat. Whereas, the D group shows a spike to the
same amount of urine volume produced as group B.
Introduction:
The kidneys in normal person can maintain blood homeostasis. Kidneys are able to filter around 150-
180 litters of blood plasma in a day. kidneys are also able to balance the salt and water which helps
in maintaining osmolarity of the blood.
Homeostasis is a significant characteristic of living organisms. It is maintained and regulated by
osmoregulation.
Normal kidneys control the osmotic pressure of mammal’s blood through filtration and purification
by osmoregulation. Osmoregulation is a process that regulate and maintain the salt and water
balance in individual’s body. Osmoregulation occurs in the kidney units and is under the direct
control of Anti-Diuretic Hormone (ADH). It is an important process because it helps in the gain and
loss of body fluid at a constant concentration, which is achieved by controlling the amount of water
and the quantity of dissolved substances within the blood. In addition to that, it helps to sustain a
fixed concentration of cell membrane-impermeable molecules and ions in the fluid that surrounds
cells. As water is crucial to life, osmoregulation is vital to health and well-being of humans.
The hypothalamus can detect changes in the blood plasma, and the pituitary gland regulates the
release of ADH, it also affects the tubule permeability and water balance.
Different quantity of ADH is distributed into the blood plasma depending on the concentration and
volume of water in the blood plasma. More water will be absorbed back into the blood when there
is a release of ADH within too concentrated blood which causes the kidney tubules to become more
permeable.
The aim of this practical was to examine the effect of different factors that can have an impact on
urine volume. As well as, to investigate the filtering and reabsorption volume of the kidney.
Hypothesis: the coffee group will produce the most amount of urine volume as the caffeine has a
diuretic effect on the bladder, which will make it excrete more amount of urine volume than the
volume consumed. And the exercise group will produce the least amount of urine volume due to
losing water through sweat.
Equipment:
Urine collection bottle, 1L measuring cylinder, 50 ml plastic measuring cylinders, container of
drinking water, cups, coffee, stopwatch and disposable gloves.
 Method:
the first step was to divide the participants into 4 experimental groups and a volunteer from each
group was needed to be the subject, the subjects are allocated to one of the following groups:
A) Water
B) Coffee/Tea
C) Exercise
D) Control
After allocating the participants to their groups, the weight of each subject and their fluid intake
must be recorded. After that the volume that needs to be drunk is obtained by multiplying the
subject’s weight in kilos by 10 and the result should be the volume in mls that needs to be drunk. For
instance, 70kg – (70 X 10 = 700 mls), the procedure then involves taking a baseline reading of the
produced urine, then the urine sample should be taken every 20 mins to determine the body’s
response. And finally, the subjects done the following:
Emptied their bladder into a sample collection bottle, then, waited 20 mins before collecting the
baseline sample. then time 0 mins which is the baseline: in this step their bladders should be
emptied into a sample collection bottle and the findings of the volume should be measured and
recorded. Thereafter, every 20 mins the volume of urine produced should be recorded up to 60
mins.
Results:
Average urine output (ml/kg/min) over 20mins time intervals:

Average 0 min 20 min 40 min 60 min

Coffee 0.030 0.020 0.056 0.124
Control 0.008 0.007 0.006 0.124
Exercise 0.018 0.007 0.006 0.007
Water 0.020 0.014 0.044 0.123

treatment 0min [average(+/-SD)] 20min [average(+/-SD)] 40min [average(+/-SD)] 60min [average(+/-SD)]

Coffee 0.030(+/-0.044) 0.020(+/-0.025) 0.056(+/-0.052) 0.124(+/-0.066)
Control 0.008(+/-0.008) 0.007(+/-0.005) 0.006(+/-0.004) 0.124(+/-0.005)
Exercise 0.018(+/-0.021) 0.007(+/-0.007) 0.006(+/-0.007) 0.007(+/-0.005)
Water 0.020(+/-0.014) 0.014(+/-0.006) 0.044(+/-0.048) 0.123(+/-0.066)
 average urine output
0.14

0.12
urine output (ml/kg/min)

0.1

0.08

0.06

0.04

0.02

0
0 min 20 min 40 min 60 min
time in minutes
Coffee Control Exercise Water

(Fig. 1)

Discussion:
Interpretation of results:
Based on the results obtained from this experiment I can see that the subjects who drank coffee had
the most urine output, throughout the 4 (20mins) time intervals. Following that the subjects who
consumed water have produced more urine output throughout the 4 (20mins) time intervals than
the control and exercise subjects and less urine output than the subjects that consumed coffee, then
as seen in the graph (fig. 1) at 0 min the subjects produced more urine than the control group and
less urine than the coffee and water groups throughout the 4 (20 mins) time intervals and then at 20
mins it shows a drop in urine output and it stays roughly the same throughout the experiment.
Whereas, control group produces the lowest amount of urine output in the first 20 mins and starts
to decrease by 0.001 for the second and third 20 mins time intervals and then at 60 mins it shows
that it spikes and reaches the same urine output as the coffee and water groups.
A) water: if the person drank too much water and didn’t do any activity to lose some of it
through sweat too much water can be detected in the blood plasma and as a result less ADH
will be released, which will lead to less water being reabsorbed and more urine volume will
be produced.

B) coffee: as coffee has caffeine and this has diuretic effect on the bladder, which means
consuming the stimulant, will lead to a desire to urinate, and this is caused by caffeine
increasing the blood flow to the kidneys and decreasing the absorption of water by inhibiting
the release of ADH simultaneously.
C) Exercise: in this case since the subjects weren’t given anything to drink to replace the water
that was lost through sweating, as a result too little water will be detected in the blood
plasma, and more ADH will be released which will lead to water being reabsorbed and a
smaller volume of urine will be produced
 D) control: since this group wasn’t given anything to do or drink. The water in their blood
plasma depends on what they consumed before that as lifestyle and diet is a major factor on
the kidneys, bladder and urine volume.
Difficulties and errors:
Some difficulties faced during this experiment include the participating group members weren’t
monitored before that to know what they eaten or consumed which might lead to anomalies within
the results.
The participants gender was mixed as well as their age, as that can have an effect on the bladder in
urine volume and reabsorption of water in blood plasma.
Suggestions for improvement:
Areas that could be improved when next doing the experiment is the number of tests conducted, or
by repeating the experiment multiple times to reduce the risk of anomalies and increase the
reliability.
Conclusion:
As mentioned above osmoregulation is the process by which living things control the concentration
of water and salts in the body, to help their bodies maintain the fluid levels within the homeostatic
limits.
The results of this experiment are supported by the hypothesis as the caffeine causes the bladder to
excrete the most amount of urine volume between the other groups.
And the exercise group has produced the least amount of urine volume due to losing water through
sweat.
References:
Urry, L., Cain, M., Wasserman, S., Minorsky, P., Reece, J. and Campbell, N. (2016). Campbell biology.
11th ed. NEW YORK: Pearson education (us), pp.975-988.

Romero, C., Barley, E. and Sharp, J. (2007). Chapter 44, Osmoregulation and Excretion.

Lord, R. (1999). Current concepts: Osmosis, osmometry, and osmoregulation. Postgraduate Medical

Journal, [online] 75(880), pp.67-79. Available at:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1741142/pdf/v075p00067.pdf.

Sutton J. (1998) Excretion and Osmoregulation in Animals. In: Biology. Macmillan Foundations.
Palgrave, London.