Chapter 50 Flashcards
(275 cards)
Water in a multicellular animal’s body is distributed between
the intracellular and extracellular compartments
What kind of cells facilitate the exchange of water and electrolytes between the body and the environment?
specialized epithelial cells
What is the major cation in extracellular fluids?
Na+
What is the major anion in extracellular fluids?
Cl-
What are three other important ions?
Ca2+; Mg2+; K+
What is osmosis?
diffusion of water across a semipermeable membrane
What is osmotic pressure?
measure of a solution’s tendency to take in water by osmosis; is the amount of pressure needed to balance the pressure created by water movement
What is the relationship between the concentration of a solution and its osmolarity?
solution with higher concentration exerts more osmotic pressure
What is osmolarity?
number of osmotically active moles of solute per liter solution
How does osmolarity differ from molarity?
if a substance dissociates in solution, there are multiple osmotically active particles - ex 1 M NaCl is 2 Osm because of Na+ and Cl-
What is the tonicity of a solution?
measure of solutions’ ability to change the volume of a cell by osmosis
Give two examples of isotonic solutions used in medical settings.
normal saline; 5% dextrose
Normal saline and 5% dextrose are what kind of solution?
isotonic solutions
What are normal saline and 5% dextrose used for?
used to bathe exposed tissue
Describe the osmolarity of body fluids in marine invertebrates.
same as that of seawater (except Mg2+ concentrations aren’t the same)
What is the consequence of marine invertebrate body fluids having the same osmolarity as seawater?
no osmotic gradient exists, so therefore no net movement of water
What are osmoconformers?
animals that maintains the osmotic concentration of its body fluids at the same level of the medium in which they live
Which vertebrates are strict osmoconformers?
primitive hagfish
Are sharks/Chondrichthyes osmoconformers?
they are isotonic to seawater even though their blood NaCl level is lower than that of seawater
How do Chondrichthyes make up the difference in NaCl between their blood and the surrounding seawater?
made up by retaining urea
What are osmoregulators?
animals that maintain relatively constant blood osmolarity in any environment
Which animals are osmoregulators?
all other vertebrates other than primitive hagfish
Describe the osmolarity of freshwater vertebrates.
hypertonic to environment
What is the consequence of hypertonicity of freshwater vertebrates?
water tends to enter their bodies, so they have adapted ways to eliminate excess water