Is glycerol permeable to red blood cells?
Moreover, glycerol is a highly diffusible molecule that can readily permeate the red blood cell (RBC) membrane following a concentration gradient.
What is cell membrane permeability?
The permeability of a membrane is the rate of passive diffusion of molecules through the membrane. These molecules are known as permeant molecules. Due to the cell membrane’s hydrophobic nature, small electrically neutral molecules pass through the membrane more easily than charged, large ones.
Can ethylene glycol cross the RBC membrane?
Recent studies have shown that the covalent attachment of poly(ethylene glycol), abbreviated as PEG, to the surface of human red blood cells (RBC) leads to masking of membrane antigenic sites and inhibition of RBC aggregation.
Why does glycerol cause hemolysis?
Pretreatment of erythrocytes with glycerol gave rise to complete hemolysis of the cells in hypotonic as well as hypertonic saline solutions. Thus, it appears that glycerol releases a portion of the lipids of the cell membrane into the surrounding medium and dehydrates the membrane, thereby promoting hemolysis.
Is glycerol hydrophobic or hydrophilic?
Because all three substituents on the glycerol backbone are long hydrocarbon chains, these compounds are nonpolar and not significantly attracted to polar water molecules—they are hydrophobic.
Is glycerol permeable to cell membrane?
Some small or uncharged molecules however can pass through freely; for example, water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, alcohol & glycerol can easily diffuse across the membrane.
How does molecular size affect permeability?
For a particular partition coefficient, the permeability of a smaller molecule is generally higher than that of a larger molecule. For molecules of equal size, the one with greater solubility in lipids will pass more quickly into the cell. For molecules of equal solubility, smaller ones penetrate faster.
How do you calculate membrane permeability?
For transport across membranes, these ideas have been codified in the simple equation (for neutral solute) j= – p·(cin-cout), where j is the net flux into the cell, cin and cout refer to the concentrations on the inside and outside of the membrane bound region, and p is a material parameter known as the permeability.
What do you think would happen to red blood cells in a 0.3 m NaCl solution?
If red blood cells are placed in a 0.3 M NaCl solution, there is little net osmotic movement of water, the size and shape of the cells stay the same; the NaCl solution is isotonic to the cell.
What happens when RBCs are placed in a 1% NaCl solution B 0.5% NaCl solution?
Hypotonic solution with 0.5 percent NaCl causes RBC to expand and rupture owing to the difference in osmotic pressure. The concentration of solutes in a hypotonic solution is lower than in another solution. A 1% NaCl solution is a hypertonic solution that causes RBC cells to shrink.
How does ethylene glycol cause hemolysis?
Exposure to various ethylene glycol monoalkyl ethers (EGAEs) is known to result in hemolytic effect caused by their metabolites, appropriate alkoxyacetic acids, generated via both alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase.
What is osmotic fragility test used for?
Osmotic fragility is a blood test to detect whether red blood cells are more likely to break down.
What are the factors that affect plasma membrane permeability?
Some of the factors upon which permeability of the plasma membranes of biological organisms depend are differences in pH on opposite sides of the membrane, temperature, osmolarity, expression of certain membrane receptors and the concentration gradients of various molecules.
Why is the permeability of solute molecules important?
The permeability of solute molecules depends on a number of factors. Molecular size is important; small polar molecules pass through cell membranes more readily than larger molecules.
How does glycerol transport take place in erythrocytes?
Glycerol transport. Assume that glycerol transport takes place by simple diffusion across the membrane (in human erythrocytes there is actually a carrier system for glycerol, but for our present purposes simple diffusion is a good approximation).