Permeability of the plasma membrane materials and methods

Materials & Methods Brook trout blood was used throughout our experiment as our erythrocyte suspension, which consisted of ten drops of fish blood in a test tube containing 10mL of 0.7% NaCl. Eleven other solutions, (erythritol, xylose, monacetin, diacetin, triacetin, urea, thiourea, glycerol, ethylene glycol, glucose and fructose) all isosmotic but not necessarily isotonic with the cytoplasm of the erythrocyte, were combined with a 0.2mL of well-mixed stock suspension were added to 0.27M of each solution, one at a time, and timed how long it took for hemolysis to occur with a stop watch. As soon as the blood was introduced into the solvent, we shook the mixture to ensure the process would happen correctly and efficiently.

Results
Table I gives the values in seconds of how long all 11 solutes took to hemolysis in seconds. Each molecule has been tested by 7 separate groups as to have a variation on results. The mean time is also shown, as well as the standard deviation. The results for fructose and xylose have not been recorded due to the solutions exceeding the given time for hemolysis; Glucose and erythritol also have insufficient data due to the time constraint. From top to bottom, the molecules are ordered by the slowest time in which hemolysis takes place to the fastest. Table II shows a bar graph of the 7 best solutions with their times; Erythritol, xylose, fructose and glucose have been left out due to their lack of data present from the experiment. The mean, standard deviation and standard error have both been calculated and shown to provide a more general number for easier understanding.