Osmolarity Lab Report

In this lab when looking at cells, we observed the salinity and osmolarity of the cell when placed in the environment. With the different concentrations of NaCl, we are able to see how different environment can constrain an organism and see the wide range of responses to regulate in cell’s osmolarity. The cells we studied was sheep red blood cells (erythrocyte), because they are the most studied membrane system and therefore used as ideal membrane to study the relationship between water and the passing of the different concentration of NaCl across the membrane.
The purpose of the experiment was to observe the cell and infer which direction of the flow of the water due to the cell volume change. This lets us to notice what in the red blood cell was able to permeable across the cell membrane, since they were placed in different osmolality solutions we are able observe the tonicity of the cell’s behavior. When the Erythrocyte is placed into a hypotonic solution, the cell will swell because water will move gradually into the cell. The concentration of solutes are lower outside than the inside of the cell, so the water will move in the cell and cause the cell to swell. If the cell was placed to hypertonic solution, the solution has a higher solute concentration than the cell, so the water moves out the cell and causes the cell to shrink. When the red blood cell is placed into a isotonic solution, the concentration of the

With the use of colorimeter, it will show how much light can be transmitted through the solutions. When the cells in the solution are centrifuged, they go to the bottom of the tube to form pallets. The liquid above the pallet are clear then they are able to quickly transmit light. However if the cells has erupted, the hemoglobin is released will be left above the pallet and observed cloudy. This will cause the solution to have less light transmitted during the use of