Association for Biology Laboratory Education

Temperature Dependence of the Passive Effects of K+ on Membrane Potential of Skeletal Muscle as an Educational Module
 

Janki Naidugari, Dara Buendia Castillo, Mohammad Abou El-Ezz, Cameron Brown, Tom Calderaro, Cameron Evans, Trey Grant, Rachel Hazelett, Cassity High, Tessa Ilagan, Jack Klier, Nicole Marguerite, Felicia Marino, Shelby McCubbin, Nicholas Meredith, Blair Nethery, William Russell, Noah Sommers, Esther E. Dupont Versteegden, Rebecca Krall, Katherine Sharp, Jeffrey Chalfant, Mia Brown, and Robin L. Cooper

Advances in Biology Laboratory Education, 2022, Volume 42

https://doi.org/10.37590/able.v42.art67

Abstract

The effects of temperature on membrane potential are not commonly addressed in experimental physiology and neurophysiology student laboratory exercises even though temperature is often used in the treatment of medical conditions such as cardiac arrest, sepsis, and other maladies. This paper describes an authentic investigation students in a neurophysiology laboratory course embarked upon to explore the additional effects of temperature on the resting membrane potential in relation to the concentration of extracellular potassium ions [K+]o,. The laboratory investigation was modified from a typical membrane potential exercise using skeletal muscle of a crayfish as an experimental model to obtain data because of the robustness of its preparation for student laboratories. The investigation explored three topics: (1) empirically study the effects of temperature and [K+]o change on the Crayfish, (2) clinical therapies using changes in temperatures in mammals, and (3) the unified issue among organisms of temperature changes in cellular metabolism. Graphing membrane potential in relation to both [K+]o and temperature along with theoretical curves for the Nernst and Goldman-Hodgkin-Katz (G-H-K) equations provided important insight into the relationship of temperature in these equations. Software freely available online was used in the calculating the theoretical values for changing the variables in the G-H-K equation. Discussion of other factors impacted by temperature for biological membranes were also discussed. A pre- and post-survey on general content and views on the activities was obtained.

Keywords:  temperature, Inquiry-based learning, membrane potential, equilibrium potential

Virtual ABLE (ViABLE) (2021)