What is the resting membrane potential in a human neuron using normal physiologi
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Question
What is the resting membrane potential in a human neuron using normal physiological values? The permeability of sodium is 25 times less than potassium. Show your work.
An alien crash lands on earth and is still alive but unresponsive. The alien is immediately flown to area 51 and a battery of physiological tests are performed. These tests identify that the alien has very similar physiology to humans. Blood samples show that the blood concentrations of sodium and potassium are 170 mOsm and 5mOsm, respectively. Tissue samples show that intracellular concentrations of sodium and potassium are 17 mOsm and 190 mOsm, respectively. Further patch-clamp studies identify that potassium permeability is 10 times higher than sodium. What is the resting membrane potential in this alien's tissue? Show your work.
Explanation / Answer
An impulse is initiated by of sensory nerve endings or by the passage of an impulse from another nerve. Transmission of the impulse, or action potential is due to movement of Ions across the nerve cell membrane. In the resting state the nerve cell membrane is polarized due to differences in the concentrations of Ions across the plasma membrane. This means that there is a different electrical charge on each side of the membrane, which is called the resting membrane potential.
The resting membrane potential of Alien's tissue is same as of human tissue because in both tissues the permeability of potassium is more than sodium and generally the main intracellular cation is Potassium whereas the sodium is main extracellular cation in both tissues.
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