Shu Yee Lau (5420364)

Lab #2 Reflection

Hypothesis:
Coffee is hypertonic to the red blood cell because it has greater solute concentration than
the blood. Water diffuses out of the red blood cell to coffee through osmosis, causing the
cell to crenate and shrink.

Methods:
The type of blood is the controlled variable as same type of blood is used throughout the
experiment. The tonicity of coffee relative to red blood cell is the independent variable and
condition of red blood cell after being added into coffee solution is the dependent variable.
Tonicity of solution impacts the red blood cell condition. If the solution is hypertonic to the
cell, water will leave the cell and cell will crenate. If the solution is isotonic to the cell, there
is no net water movement and cell will be normal. If the solution is hypotonic to the cell,
water will enter the cell and the cell will lyse.

Results:
Content Tonicity Movement Transparency Appearance RBC
of water Condition
Coffee + Hypertonic Out of red Invisible Shriveled Crenate
blood blood cell

Red blood cell under the microscope:

Red blood cell

The red blood cells appear to shrink slightly under the microscope. Hypothesis is
supported. Under hypertonic environment, water move out of the cell to the solution and
causes crenation of cell. In hypotonic solution, water will move into the cell and causes the
cell to lyse and burst. In this experiment, the red blood cells look slightly shrink under the
microscope. Coffee is hypertonic to red blood cell.

However, human red blood cells will not swell or shrink as much in hypotonic or
hypertonic solution. This is because the human kidney is responsible of regulating the
concentration so that the concentration of blood remains the same as the concentration
inside the red blood cells.
 Shu Yee Lau (5420364)

Plasma membrane
Coffee Red blood cell

Conclusion:
The coffee solution is hypertonic to the red blood cells. Water move out from the
cell to the coffee solution through osmosis, causing crenation of cell.

According to the result, the red blood cells only shrink slightly in coffee solution. One
of the limitation that might have affected the experiment is the temperature of the
surrounding which we are not able to control. If the temperature of surrounding is
increased, the cells would have shrink more as the movement of water molecules increase
due to increase in kinetic energy. Yet, the limitation will not much affect the experiment.
Another factor would be the uneven concentration of coffee. The concentrated part of
coffee might have sink to the bottom of test tube, hence affecting the result. To improve
the experiment, the experiment will be conducted in a controlled temperature and the
solution of coffee and blood will be stirred before being mounted on the slide so that the
concentration will be the same throughout the test tube.

Osmosis is used in medical industry. Kidney dialysis, which is important for patients
with kidney disease, apply osmosis to replace the filtering function of kidney. The semi-
permeable membrane that is used in dialysis machine allow small molecules like water and
salts to pass through but block larger molecules.