Biology 304
Kidney Labs

The following are amalgamations of several years' data from students just like you. Most of the trends represent reality quite well, though the odd glitch (often unavoidable under less-than-controlled conditions) remains. We could do statistics on these to see where significant changes lie, but with these uncontrolled conditions, there wouldn't be many. Read the graphs as if the changes were significant though.

Errors or insignificant changes are pointed out.

Recall that the T0 sample was consumed prior to drinking the test solution and that we didn't have much control over what volunteers consumed prior to lab.

 
Click on the thumbnails to see the graph.

Be able to explain these graphs.
Normalized Output Volume The changes from T0 to T30 are all insignificant.
Specific Gravity It is unclear what causes the drop at T60 for bicarbonate drinkers. Ignore this.
pH Only the bicarbonate drinkers show a significant change. Sometimes, NaCl drinkers do, too - what would the change be, and what would cause it?
Sodium Output Excretion Rate The terminal values for the water and beer drinkers seem high; picture them as not different from the T90 values.
Riboflavin concentration in the urine It is unclear what causes the transient peak at T30 for the water drinkers (remember that there was a day's worth of riboflavin mixed into the water). Ignore that peak.

Although the riboflavin concentration didn't change much in the urine of the other volunteers, how would you find out if the absolute amount of riboflavin changed?

 

Thanks to all who contributed their data!

The Bowman's Capsule image is courtesy of The Biodidac Project.

 

R.F. Lauff
 Department of Biology
St. Francis Xavier University

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