Osmos

[dawoodr]

Hello!

 

This is my first post so I hope that I am not breaking any rules by posting this thread here. This is however not a homework or I would post it in that section. This is just a random question that we got.

 

Diarrhea means, as you probably know, that you have very loose stools with high water content. To counteract diarrhea the patient is sometimes given fructose because fructose is absorbed very efficiently in the cells of the small intestine. Explain why this counteracts diarrhea!

 

I know or my guessings are that it got something to do with osmos.

 

Could someone please explain this for me?

 

Regards!

[Endy0816]

Best mention I could readily find:

 

 

The SGLT proteins use the energy from this downhill sodium gradient created by the ATPase pump to transport glucose across the apical membrane against an uphill glucose gradient. Therefore, these co-transporters are an example of secondary active transport. (The GLUT uniporters then transport the glucose across the basolateral membrane, into the peritubular capillaries.) Both SGLT1 and SGLT2 are known as symporters, since both sodium and glucose are transported in the same direction across the membrane.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_rehydration_therapy#Physiological_basis

 

As I understand the above the higher sodium concentration is enough to get the glucose through.

 

Also Osmos is more commonly referred to as Osmosis. Equalization across a membrane.

[dawoodr]

Not trying to be rude or anything here but could you please simplify it a bit more? This is high school biology. And I think you missed out some information in the question. The patient is given "fructose" and it has nothing to do with glucose, they are not asking a comparision between fructose and glucose. They are asking how come that if a fructose is ingested the diarrhea can be cured?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

A tip: it's osmosis, not "osmos."

 

If the fructose is absorbed into the cells of the small intestine, there's a high concentration of fructose in the cells and a lower concentration outside. On the other hand, there's lots of water outside the cells, lurking amongst the loose stools.

 

In this case, what does osmosis suggest the water will do? Where will it go?

[dawoodr]

So it is really this simple? He said that this was the hardest question that he wanted us to know and said that we should know it as detailed as possible. This is not a homework, he said that it would be good if we knew it in the future because it might come up something like this on a test.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I think so.

 

There's actually a medical condition known as "fructose malabsorption," where people don't absorb fructose well into the walls of their intestines, so the osmosis effect goes the other way. It has unfortunate effects.

[dawoodr]

Thank you very much for the answer! If somebody else can make it more detailed and explain it a bit more please do so. I would really appreciate it! I do understand the process but I do think he wants us to know this more detailed, and since it's probably gonna come on a test I really want to know the answer to this question as detailed as possible.

Edited October 21, 2013 by dawoodr