The relation between cell volume and penetration of a solute from an isosmotic solution

✍ Scribed by Jacobs, M. H.

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1933
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 748 KB
• Volume: 3
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0095-9898
• DOI: 10.1002/jcp.1030030103

✦ Synopsis

The osmotic volume changes of cells that occur in solutions of non-penetrating substances have received extensive and, on the whole, adequate treatment. The literature in this field has recently been well summarized by Luck6 and hlcCutcheon ( '32). As contrasted with these relatively simple volume changes, the more complex, and in some respects more interesting ones that take place in solutions of penetrating substances have been largely neglected, though certain aspects of this general question have recently been discussed by Jacobs and Stewart ('32), Jacobs ('33)' and Osterhout ( '33). The first 2 of the 3 papers cited deal primarily with the minimum volumes attained by cells when exposed to hypertonic solutions containing both penetrating and non-penetrating substances. The paper by Osterhout has to do with the even more complex case where a penetrating substance takes part in a chemical reaction within a cell that leads to its accumulation in higher concentration there than in the surrounding medium.

Before dealing more fully with these relatively complicated problems, it seems desirable to consider certain aspects of the simplest possible case of the relation of cell volume to penetration, namely, that of a cell surrounded by an isosmotic: solution of a penetrating non-electrolyte. An understanding of this fundamental case, which has apparently not previ-29