第5章細胞膜の構造と機能

Osmosis is the movement of free water molecules through a semipermeable membrane according to the water's concentration gradient across the membrane, which is inversely proportional to the solutes' concentration. While diffusion transports material across membranes and within cells, osmosis transports only water across a membrane and the membrane limits the solutes' diffusion in the water. Not surprisingly, the aquaporins that facilitate water movement play a large role in osmosis, most prominently in red blood cells and the membranes of kidney tubules.

Osmosis is a special case of diffusion. Water, like other substances, moves from an area of high concentration of free water molecules to one of low free water molecule concentration. An obvious question is what makes water move at all? Imagine a beaker with a semipermeable membrane separating the two sides or halves (Figure 5.11). On both sides of the membrane the water level is the same, but there are different dissolved substance concentrations, or solute, that cannot cross the membrane (otherwise the solute crossing the membrane would balance concentrations on each side). If the solution's volume on both sides of the membrane is the same, but the solute's concentrations are different, then there are different amounts of water, the solvent, on either side of the membrane.

To illustrate this, imagine two full water glasses. One has a single teaspoon of sugar in it; whereas, the second one contains one-quarter cup of sugar. If the total volume of the solutions in both cups is the same, which cup contains more water? Because the large sugar amount in the second cup takes up much more space than the teaspoon of sugar in the first cup, the first cup has more water in it.

Returning to the beaker example, recall that it has a solute mixture on either side of the membrane. A principle of diffusion is that the molecules move around and will spread evenly throughout the medium if they can. However, only the material capable of getting through the membrane will diffuse through it. In this example, the solute cannot diffuse through the membrane, but the water can. Water has a concentration gradient in this system. Thus, water will diffuse down its concentration gradient, crossing the membrane to the side where it is less concentrated. This diffusion of water through the membrane—osmosis—will continue until the water's concentration gradient goes to zero or until the water's hydrostatic pressure balances the osmotic pressure. Osmosis proceeds constantly in living systems.

Tonicity describes how an extracellular solution can change a cell's volume by affecting osmosis. A solution's tonicity often directly correlates with the solution's osmolarity. Osmolarity describes the solution's total solute concentration. A solution with low osmolarity has a greater number of water molecules relative to the number of solute particles. A solution with high osmolarity has fewer water molecules with respect to solute particles. In a situation in which a membrane permeable to water, though not to the solute separates two different osmolarities, water will move from the membrane's side with lower osmolarity (and more water) to the side with higher osmolarity (and less water). This effect makes sense if you remember that the solute cannot move across the membrane, and thus the only component in the system that can move—the water—moves along its own concentration gradient. An important distinction that concerns living systems is that osmolarity measures the number of particles (which may be molecules) in a solution. Therefore, a solution that is cloudy with cells may have a lower osmolarity than a solution that is clear, if the second solution contains more dissolved molecules than there are cells.

Scientists use three terms—hypotonic, isotonic, and hypertonic—to relate the cell's osmolarity to the extracellular fluid's osmolarity that contains the cells. In a hypotonic situation, the extracellular fluid has lower osmolarity than the fluid inside the cell, and water enters the cell. (In living systems, the point of reference is always the cytoplasm, so the prefix hypo- means that the extracellular fluid has a lower solute concentration, or a lower osmolarity, than the cell cytoplasm.) It also means that the extracellular fluid has a higher water concentration in the solution than does the cell. In this situation, water will follow its concentration gradient and enter the cell.