Osmotic gradients

Osmotic pressure from high concentrations of dissolved solutes is a serious problem for cells. Bacterial and plant cells have strong, rigid cell walls to contain these pressures. In contrast, animal cells are bathed in extracellular fluids of comparable osmolarity, so no net osmotic gradient exists. Also, to minimize the osmotic pressure created by the contents of their cytosol, cells tend... 

Previous studies indicate that osmotic gradients promote membrane fusion, while hyperosmotic conditions inhibit membrane fusion during exocytosis. Consistent with this idea is the observation that the release of lysosomal enzymes from rabbit neutrophils, induced by the chemotactic peptide J -formylmethionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (FMLP), is inhibited almost 80% in a 700-mosmol/kg medium. Inhibition is immediate (within 10 s), increases with osmolality, and is independent of the osmoticant. Neutrophils loaded with the calcium indicator indo-1 exhibit an FMLP-induced calcium signal that is inhibited by hyperosmolality. Hyperosmolality (700 mosmol/kg) increases basal calcium levels and reduces the peak of the calcium signal elicited by FMLP at concentrations ranging from 10 ° to 10 M. 

Plant cells selected for tolerance to stress show varied responses to the imposed osmotic gradients. In adapted cells, tolerance to salinity or to water stress was not found to increase proportionately with increases in turgor (Handa et al., 1983 Binzel et al., 1985). It was suggested from these observations and from studies by Heyser Nabors (1981) that no relationship existed between turgor and growth and that stress adaptation may alter the relationship between turgor and cell expansion (see also Chapter 6). 

Osmotherapy employs agents such as mannitol, glycerol, and hypertonic saline to create an osmotic gradient between the brain (optimally, the edematous infarcted tissue) and the bloodstream, such that water is drawn out from the brain, thereby reducing edema. Each of these agents has been shown to be effective, and may be used alone or in combination with a diuretic, such as furosemide. Their action, however, depends upon an intact blood-brain barrier (BBB), and concerns have been raised for possible paradoxical worsening when one is absent. In this hypothesis, mannitol extravasates from the vessel into the interstitial tissue and water follows a new osmotic... 

Water and electrolytes. Each day in an average adult, about 5.51 of food and fluids move from the stomach to the small intestine as chyme. An additional 3.5 1 of pancreatic and intestinal secretions produce a total of 9 1 of material in the lumen. Most of this (>7.5 1) is absorbed from the small intestine. The absorption of nutrient molecules, which takes place primarily in the duodenum and jejunum, creates an osmotic gradient for the passive absorption of water. Sodium may be absorbed passively or actively. Passive absorption occurs when the electrochemical gradient favors the movement of Na+ between the absorptive cells through "leaky" tight junctions. Sodium is actively absorbed by way of transporters in the absorptive cell membrane. One type of transporter carries a Na+ ion and a Cl ion into the cell. Another carries a Na+ ion, a K+ ion, and two Cl ions into the cell. 

Distinguish between the vertical osmotic gradient and the horizontal osmotic gradient... 

Reabsorption of water is a passive process water is reabsorbed according to the osmotic gradient created by reabsorption of Na+ ions. 

Recall that the reabsorption of Na+ ions is accompanied by reabsorption of Cl- ions, which diffuse down their electrical gradient, and by reabsorption of water, which diffuses down its osmotic gradient. The net result is an expansion of plasma volume and consequently an increase in blood pressure. Therefore, the regulation of sodium reabsorption is important in the long-term regulation of blood pressure. As such, aldosterone and ANP, as well as the factors involved in their release, are discussed further in subsequent sections. 

The descending limb of the Loop of Henle is permeable to water only. As this region of the tubule passes deeper into the medulla, water leaves the filtrate down its osmotic gradient until it equilibrates with the increasingly concentrated interstitial fluid (see Figure 19.5). As a result, the filtrate also... 

Because the transport of sodium is an active process, it is used to accumulate NaCl in the interstitial fluid of the medulla. In fact, this activity is involved in the initial establishment of the vertical osmotic gradient. Furthermore, sodium is actively transported out of the tubular epithelial cells up its concentration gradient until the filtrate is 200 mOsm/1 less concentrated than the surrounding interstitial fluid. This difference between the filtrate and the interstitial fluid is referred to as the horizontal osmotic gradient. Because the filtrate at the end of the Loop of Henle has an osmolarity of 100 mOsm/1, the kidneys have the ability to produce urine that is significantly more dilute than the plasma. 

Maintaining the vertical osmotic gradient within the interstitial fluid of the medulla... 

Cell membranes or synthetic lipid vesicles with normal low permeability to water will, if reconstituted with AQP1, absorb water, swell and burst upon exposure to hypo-osmotic solutions. The water permeability of membranes containing AQP 1 can be about 100 times greater than that of membranes without aquaporins. The water permeability conferred by AQP1 (about 3 billion water molecules per subunit per second) is reversibly inhibited by Hg2+, exhibits low activation energy and is not accompanied by ionic currents or translocation of any other solutes, ions or protons. Thus, the movement of water through aquaporins is an example of facilitated diffusion, in this case driven by osmotic gradients. 

Proximal tubule Cells of the PCT are responsible for bulk transport of solutes, with approximately 70-80% of the filtered load of sodium chloride (active processes) and water (passive, down the osmotic gradient established by sodium reabsorption) and essentially all of the amino acids, bicarbonate, glucose and potassium being reabsorbed in this region. 

A number of ocular surface disorders collectively termed as Dry Eye Syndromes have also been associated with the conjunctiva. For example, a deficiency and/or imbalance in compositions of the tear film is often found on the ocular surface during keratoconjunctivitis sicca. Since the conjunctiva plays a direct role in the maintenance of the tear fluid stability via secretion of mucin [1] by its resident goblet cells [4] and basal fluid secretion driven by electro-osmotic gradients across the tissue [3], the conjunctiva is a well deserved, but not intensively studied, target of interest in research efforts aimed against combating Dry Eye Syndromes. 

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