Animal Cells Lab Report

Animal cell membranes are selectively permeable and allow certain substances in and out through passive or active transport. While plant cells have a cell wall to combat high concentrations of water, animal cells only have a cell membrane. This lack of support can make a hypotonic animal cell expand and burst. A hypertonic animal cell will undergo osmosis and release water eventually causing the cell to shrivel up and shrink. Both of these results make it extremely important for animal cells to reach equilibrium or isotonic levels.
Place 4 full pipettes of starch into a small beaker. Use a pipette to add 4 pipettes of α-amylase to the small beaker then stir. Open dialysis tubing from one end then tie the tubing with a clamp. Open the moist end and add 4 pipettes of the solution from the beaker into the tubing. Wipe clean the outside of the bag to remove any excess solution. In a large beaker add two-thirds of water then add 4 pipettes of Lugol’s reagent to the beaker. Place the dialysis bag in the large beaker with the open end over the edge then attach a rubber band. Wait about an hour to note any color changes between the beakers. …show more content…
The beaker with only starch that was once simply an amber color now had a tint of purple. The dialysis bag inside of the beaker was a strong purple. This indicated that Iodine from the Lugol’s reagent had diffused into the dialysis bag while very little starch had made its way out into the beaker. The second beaker with both starch and α-amylase were initially amber colored. After the elapsed time, very little color change was noted meaning that neither α-amylase nor starch had moved out of the dialysis bag and no Lugol’s reagent was found in the dialysis tubing. The glucose test strip for the beaker with starch and amylase showed that the beaker had 100 mg while the dialysis bag had a little less than 100