Altitude effects on the Human Body- When a human body goes to a certain altitude then the body will attempt to maintain a state of homeostasis or balance to ensure the optimal operating environment for its chemical systems. Therefore the effect of increasing altitude on the human body will result in ability to provide adequate oxygen to carry out aerobic respiration. When a human body goes to altitude the main problem is the reduced ability to obtain oxygen form the atmosphere. This change may cause a rapid decline in the normally functioning of the body. If this is prolonged than the effects may be permanent or even fatal.
All the systems in the human body are affected by a lack of oxygen, but the system that is responsible for supplying oxygen to all the cells of the body is the respiratory system. This system is responsible for two main functions, firstly providing oxygen to the cells for respiration and the second function is to get rid of the carbon dioxide, which is a harmful substances. The transfer of gas is also affected, because the pressure in the atmosphere also affects the respiration rate. This is important because the atmospheric pressure reduces when altitude increase. The third and final area that is affected by altitude is cellular respiration. During a normal, non-stressed state, the respiratory system transports oxygen from the lungs to the cells of the body where it is used for cellular respiration. This amount of oxygen is sufficient for the process under normal conditions. This is because cellular respiration converts the energy in chemical bonds into energy that can be used to power body processes. Glucose is the molecule mainly used to fuel this process.
Effects of Altitude training on Red Blood Cells- At altitude there is less oxygen in the air. Normally oxygen is inhaled through the lungs, diffused into the blood where it is bound to the red blood cell using haemoglobin and delivered to the working muscle. Oxygen is a major supplier to our aerobic energy metabolism. If there is less oxygen available in the air, less oxygen is presented to the red blood cells. As a result, the body reacts by producing more red blood cells so all-available oxygen in the lungs can be bound to the red blood cells as much as possible. Altitude will also increase the concentration of haemoglobin in each red blood cell. The reason for why this is done is because there is less oxygen at higher altitude therefore more haemoglobin is produced so that more oxygen can be absorbed by the red blood cell.
This proves that delivery of oxygen to the muscle cell is improved following altitude exposure due to an increase in the amount of blood vessels surrounding the muscle cell. When the athlete returns to sea level there is suddenly an abundance of red blood cells and therefore an increased oxygen carrying capacity of the blood. This results in increased oxygen availability for the working muscle and a related improvement in aerobic energy supply and therefore performance. Training at altitude will also affect the amount and concentration of haemoglobin.
Oxygen use in the Human body- Humans need oxygen in order to break down food for energy; energy is produced in the body by using oxygen. The process of transforming the chemical energy in food into a form that our cells can use is called respiration, and if oxygen is necessary, then it's aerobic respiration. The general chemical equation for aerobic respiration is shown below:
Glucose + Oxygen Carbon Dioxide + Water + Energy
C6H12O6 + 6O2 6CO2 + 6H2O + 38ATP
The energy from respiration is stored in a molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and ATP is used to fuel lots of cellular processes. Some of these include cell division; DNA replication, chemical synthesis, active transport and particularly every other process required in order for a body to survive.
Our respiratory and cardiovascular systems are designed to take in oxygen from the air, release carbon dioxide back into the air, transport the oxygen throughout the body, and remove carbon dioxide and other waste products from our cells. The three main steps in Aerobic respiration are Glycolysis, Krebs cycle, and Electron transport system:
Glycolysis- Glycolysis is the sequence of reactions which converts a glucose molecule into two pyruvate molecules with the production of NADH and ATP. Specific enzymes control each of the different reactions. There is a net gain of 2 ATP at the end of Glycolysis. Glycolysis itself does not require oxygen and can proceed aerobically or anaerobically.
Glycolysis can generally be divided into two main phases. During the first phase, phosphate is added to the glucose molecule, known as phosphorylation. The glucose molecule is now split into two three-carbon molecules. This phase of glycolysis cannot occur without the input of energy and phosphate from two molecules of ATP.
The second phase begins with the reduction of NAD+ to NADH by the oxidation of three-carbon molecule. After this, some of the energy from glucose is stored in the electrons of NADH. This oxidation also releases enough energy to add a second phosphate group to the three-carbon molecule, converting it to bisphosphoglyceric acid. The three-carbon molecule that remains is then rearranged to form pyruvic acid. This produces two molecule of ATP and one molecule of pyruvic acid.
By the end of glycolysis, a small amount of the chemical energy that started out in glucose ends up in ATP and NADH. Most of the energy remains in pyruvic acid. The energy stored in pyruvic acid is used to make more ATP in the mitochondrion. The synthesis of ATP from the energy of pyruvic acid occurs later in the Krebs Cycle.
The Krebs Cycle- The first reaction of the cycle occurs when Acetyl Coenzyme A transfers its two-carbon acetyl group to the four-carbon compound oxaloacetate, forming citrate (6-carbons). The citrate then goes through a series of chemical transformations, losing one and then a second carboxyl group as carbon dioxide. Most of the energy made available by the oxidative steps of the cycle is transferred as electrons to NAD+, forming NADH. For each acetyl group that enters the Krebs cycle, three molecules of NAD+ are reduced to NADH. In the sixth step of the krebs cycle electrons are transferred to the electron acceptor FAD, not NAD+.
When the Krebs cycle finishes once then two molecules of carbon dioxide and eight hydrogen atoms are removed, forming three NADH and one FADH2. Because two Acetyl Coenzyme A molecules are produced from each glucose molecule, the cycle must be completed twice to process each glucose. At the end of each turn of the cycle, the four-carbon oxaloacetate is left. Only one molecule of ATP is produced directly by this stage.
The Electron Transport Chain- During various steps in Glycolysis and the Krebs cycle, the oxidation of certain molecules causes the reduction of NAD+ to NADH2 and FAD to FADH2. NADH2 and FADH2 then transfer electrons to the electron transport chain to produce additional ATPs from oxidative phosphorylation.
During the process of aerobic respiration, coupled oxidation-reduction reactions and electron carriers are part of the electron transport chain, a series of electron carriers that eventually transfers electrons from NADH and FADH2 to oxygen. The last electron carrier in the electron transport chain transfers the electrons to the terminal electron acceptor, oxygen.
In the absence of oxygen hydrogen cannot be disposed of by combination with oxygen, producing water. If water cannot be formed than reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) cannot be recycled therefore the krebs cycle and electron transport chain cannot occur. Thus no ATP is produced by oxidative phosphorylation. The reason that the krebs cycle and electron transport chain cannot carry on because these two processes require hydrogen, which is carried by the NAD. So if there is no NAD to carry the hydrogen away from the krebs cycle then no hydrogen is available to be taken to the electron transport chain. Therefore if there are no hydrogen ions to be passed down the hydrogen carriers and electron carriers then no ATP will be produced.
There are two type of anaerobic respiration that can take place, one is the ethanol pathway and the other, which takes place in human beings, is the lactate pathway. In this process the pyruvate acts as a hydrogen acceptor and is eventually converted to lactate. It is converted using an enzyme called lactate dehydrogenase. The lactate pathway uses two hydrogen ions, which are carried by the NAD. The hydrogen ions combine with the pyruvate to form lactate. The change from glucose to pyruvate produces two molecules of ATP.
Below is a diagram that shows the lactate pathway that takes place in all mammalian respiration:
The purpose of this reaction to continue some release of energy even thought there is a lack of energy present. Once the lactate is produced it is transported to the liver were it is converted into carbon dioxide and water, this take’s place in the presence of oxygen.
Hypothesis and Prediction
My prediction is that Blood type C will be the densest. This is because the blood that is used for this group is from an athlete who has trained aerobically at altitude fro 8 months. This means that the number of red blood cells would have increased compared to that of an athlete who has trained at normal sea level. Therefore Blood type A will be predicted to be the least dense, this is because this specimen was obtained from a normal, healthy male who lives at sea level. From those two predictions I can also predict that Blood type B will be in between them. This is because the man is aerobically training, which will increase the number of red blood cell, this the density, but not as much as if he were to do the same training at altitude. There are two null hypotheses:
- There is no difference between blood group A and blood group B.
- There is no difference between blood group A and blood group C.
An Investigation to see the Blood Density of 3 different types of Blood in CuSO4
Results Table
T-Tests
The null hypothesis is that there will be no difference between blood type A and blood type B. The second null hypothesis is that there will be no difference between blood type A and blood type C
Below is the T-test for Blood type A against Blood type B:
Below is the T-test for Blood type A against Blood type C:
Analysis and Evaluation
The results that I obtained from the blood type A was that the speed of the blood traveled slower in the copper sulphate compared to that of the blood type B pr blood type C. The average speed of the blood drops form mock blood A was 10.7 seconds to travel 90 cm. The average speed of a single blood drop using the mock blood B was 9.5 seconds per 90 mm3. On average the time it took for a drop of blood, from the batch of the blood type C, to travel 90 mm3 was 7.6 seconds. From these results I can come to a conclusion that the denser blood group was blood group C, the reason for this is because the denser a substance is then the quicker it will move through a liquid. The reason for why this was the densest of the blood types was because it was taken from a person training for 8 months at altitude. This means that they would have built up more red blood cell to make up for the lack of oxygen at altitude. Having more red blood cells makes up for a lack of oxygen because then more oxygen can be carried by the haemaglobin. This therefore means that the least dense blood group is blood type A, the reason being that the lighter a substance then the slower it will move through a liquid. This was the least dense because this sample of blood was taken from a person at normal sea level who is not carrying out exercise. There if the person is not exercising then there is already no need to produce an excessive amount or red blood cells. They are also at sea level therefore there is a sufficient amount of oxygen in the air, that is required for aerobic respiration to take place. This means that the prediction that I made, i.e. blood group C will be the densest was correct. The second part of this prediction was also correct, because blood type A was the least dense.
The P-value the probability that the null hypothesis is incorrect. The value of P that I chose was 0.05, i.e. the P-value that I chose showed that the probability of the null hypothesis being incorrect was 5 in 100. Therefore with a figure of 0.05 and 18 being the number of degrees of freedom I can say that the t-value is 2.10.The purpose of the t-value is to have a deciding factor or limit, it is called also known as the Threshold value. The t-test that I performed with blood type A against blood type B was that the result was below 2.10, it was 1.68. With this information I can come to a firm conclusion that my t-test for blood type A against blood type B accepted the first null hypothesis. The first hypothesis stated that there will be no difference between blood type A and blood type B. Having a t-test figure as low as 1.68 makes a clear conclusion that any differences in the results were caused by chance factors. This is the reason for why I have accepted the null hypothesis.
The second t-test that I conducted was between blood type A and blood type C. The reason we used blood type A for both the two t-tests was because this would ensure that the results of the two t-tests could be compared, knowing that both have figures for blood type A. The second t-tests had very opposite results to that of the t-test between blood type A and blood type C; the figure that I obtained from the t-test was 4. Thus I have to reject the null hypothesis; this is because the numbers that was recorded after the t-test was above 2.10. This means that any differences are not caused by chance factors; this means that the difference is significant. The significance of P is that it provides a t-value; this value shows how significant the two different sets results are. With a t-value of 2.10 I could say that the result I obtained from my t-test between blood type A and Blood type B was that there was no significant difference. With a t-test value between blood type A and blood type C of 4.0 I can say that there is a very significant difference. Therefore I can change the P-value; this would increase the probability of proving the null hypothesis wrong. An increase in this probability would mean that it would decrease the P-value to 0.001, thus the t-value would be 3.92, proving that the number of degrees of freedom remains at 18. Despite increasing the probability there is still a significant difference, this proves that there is a 100% probability that the null hypothesis will be rejected.
The reliability of these results will and have depended on a number of factors. I think that there are two factors that are more significant than the others; both these factors are based on practical perfection. The first of these two factors is the height at which the drop of blood is dropped into the copper sulphate. This can affect my results because the higher you drop the blood from then it will have more time to generate a greater velocity, therefore when it enters the copper sulphate then it will travel faster than a drop of blood that was dropped from a lower height. Therefore to ensure that all the drops didn’t have any extra air time to generate speed I tried to drop the blood from the same height every single time. Due to human error this is not possible to get this height the same every single time without using any apparatus. To improve this error I would use a retort stand, and have the prongs fixed a certain height. This modification would increase the reliability of the results.
The second significant factor is the shape of the blood drop, this is a factor that can affect the speed of the blood drop due to surface area. The blood drop shape depends on the pipette. This is because a pipette with a larger nib will produce a larger drop of blood. This would have a larger surface area, therefore it would be slowed down and visa versa for a pipette with a thinner nib. This factor could be over come by using a syringe with a needle. Having a needle present will naturally produce the same size drop. Therefore there would be the same size drops of blood all the time thus increasing the consistency of the results.
Some other factors that could affect the results could be errors in the timing; this would obviously either increase or decrease the time taken for the blood drop to pass through the copper sulphate. The volume of blood drop will also have a significant affect on the results, thus the value of the t-tests. The volume has an impact on the results because the larger the volume the more resistance there is between the blood and the copper sulphate; this would slow down the drop of blood. Another factor would be if the blood drop touched the sides of the test tube, this is a factor for the same reason as the volume. It would slow down the drop of blood due to an increased amount of resistance. To improve this I could use a test tube that has a larger diameter. This would cut down the likelihood of the blood drop touching the side. Another improvement would be to drop the blood from as close to the centre of the test tube as possible.
The quality of the results that they are relatively accurate this is because there are very few of anomalies, the main one that I can see is the third and fourth figures in the mock blood A, they are 8 and 7.7 respectfully. As there are hardly any irregularities in the results this would increase the reliability of the results. Thus allowing me to come to firmer conclusions.