Red Blood Cells

can anyone help me with these questions???

What happens to the na+ -k+ pumbs in red blood cells when cyonide is added to them
and what happens to the Na+ concentration inside the cell???
Please help am so so stuck

Reply 1

insparato

15

I guess you mean the Sodium potassium pump and cyanide. However besides that cyanide i guess you mean in the poisonous terms. I dont however no much on cyanide ive read something on it, has something to do with the mitochondria and ATP. Got this from a google search

Cyanide inhibits mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase and hence blocks electron transport, resulting in decreased oxidative metabolism and oxygen utilization. Lactic acidosis occurs as a consequence of anaerobic metabolism. The oxygen metabolism at the cell level is grossly hampered.

I havent done anything on Respiration but i do however know that electron transport is to do with respiration and the production ATP. If this is inhibited by cyanide ATP production is inhibited. The sodium potassium pump simultaneously pumps sodium ions out of the cell and pumps potassium into the cell. The sodium potassium pump requires ATP for this simultaneous motion to occur thus if ATP is inhibited the sodium potassium pump wont work as well therefore sodium ions might stay inside the cell instead of being pumped out. Also inorder for cells to keep its cell potential it requires for a high concentration of potassium ions in the cell and a low concentration of sodium ions. There is a high concentration of sodium ions outside of the cell and a low concentration of potassium outside of the cell too. This means that if you want sodium ions to pump out of the cell and potassium pumped into the cell active transport is the obvious choice of transportation across the membrane because of the unique property of active transport by going against the concentration gradient (particles move from a small concentration to a big concentration). Active transport indeed requires ATP, the sodium potassium pump obviously is a carrier protein which pumps ions across the membrane by active transport. Thus if cyanide inhibits atp production and therefore disrupts the way in which the sodium potassium functions the red blood cell potential is disrupted. For a sodium potassium pump to function properly there is a need for a potential across the membrane.

Again you dont do the Na+ K+ pump in detail till A2 i am only in AS so sorry for the lack of terminology and depth in my answer to your question, that is what i get from the question. If i knew the details of how cyanide inhibits respiration and more detail about the pump i could help you more.

Reply 2

doogleboy

In order to maintain the cell potential, cells must keep a low concentration of sodium ions and high levels of potassium ions within the cell (intracellular). Outside cells (extracellular), there are high concentrations of sodium and low concentrations of potassium, so diffusion occurs through ion channels in the plasma membrane. In order to keep the appropriate concentrations, the sodium-potassium pump pumps sodium out and potassium in.

The mechanism is:

The pump, with bound ATP, binds 3 intracellular Na+ ions.

ATP is hydrolyzed, leading to phosphorylation of the pump at a highly conserved aspartate residue and subsequent release of ADP.

A conformational change in the pump exposes the Na+ ions to the outside. The phosphorylated form of the pump has a low affinity for sodium ions, so they are released.

The pump binds 2 extracellular K+ ions, leading to the dephosphorylation of the pump.
ATP binds, and the pump reorients to release potassium ions inside the cell so the pump is ready to go again.

Reply 3

insparato

15

Basically what i said but didnt go into detail about the mechanisms which i did find on wikipedia.

I always find it useful when you get a question you dont know anything about have alook on www.wikipedia.org its a free encyclopedia has some great information on alot of things in science. Read it up on there have alook at it anything you dont understand theres probably a link to that word you dont understand or theory involved with the topic you are looking at. Read around try get something from it and try find out what cyanide does and link it to the sodium potassium pump.

Reply 4

Revenged

15

insparato

I guess you mean the Sodium potassium pump and cyanide. However besides that cyanide i guess you mean in the poisonous terms. I dont however no much on cyanide ive read something on it, has something to do with the mitochondria and ATP. Got this from a google search

Cyanide inhibits mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase and hence blocks electron transport, resulting in decreased oxidative metabolism and oxygen utilization. Lactic acidosis occurs as a consequence of anaerobic metabolism. The oxygen metabolism at the cell level is grossly hampered.

but red blood cells do not contain mitochondria and they are not sites for respiration!

Reply 5

nikk

15

Revenged

but red blood cells do not contain mitochondria and they are not sites for respiration!

I was thinking the same thing! As far as I am aware, cyanide is poisonious because of it inhibiting the electron transport chain in aerobically respiring cells. Any other effects it has on RBCs is fairly irrelevant because you are only going to last a few seconds without aerobic respiration anyway. :p:

Red Blood Cells

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