Period5.C1

Dan Genkin, Libby Campbell and Adam O'Neil Introduction: Our lab question was whether a more acidic solution or a more basic solution would allow the liver to create more oxygen. When the liver is surrounded by Hydrogen Peroxide, a weak base that has strong oxidizing powers, it creates oxygen in the form of bubbles. In class we saw a demonstration of liver mixed with Hydrogen Peroxide, the bubbles produced were able to light a recently blown out match, which proved that the bubbles produced from the mix of liver and hydrogen peroxide was pure oxygen. Oxygen is created by the enzymes in the liver, catalase, which break down the Hydrogen Peroxide into water and oxygen. Enzymes can function better based on their environment, our test was to see if enzymes functioned more efficiently in a more basic solution or acidic solution. To create this solution we mixed the Hydrogen Peroxide with acid and base and watched to see which solution allowed the catalase to break down the Hydrogen Peroxide quicker and produce more oxygen.

Hypothesis: We believe that the more acidic solution will release more oxygen and therefore create a higher pressure in the flask and more bubbles.


 * **Independent Variable** || Amount of base, Amount of Acid ||
 * **Dependent Variable(s)** || Amount of oxygen produced, ||
 * **Controlled Variables** || Amount of liver, Amount of Hydrogen Peroxide ||
 * **How will you change your independent variable? (be specific)** || We will add a predetermine amount of Base or Acid to a specified amount of Hydrogen peroxide ||
 * **How will you measure your dependent variable?** || We will use a pressure sensor to see the increase in pressure in the flask ||
 * **How will you set up a control?** || We will run our experiment with pure Hydrogen Peroxide ||
 * **Hypothesis:** || If you create a more acidic environment, then more oxygen will be produced. ||

Materials:
 * 3, 50mL beaker
 * 3, flasks
 * 3, 5 mL syringes
 * 3, small injection tubes
 * 1) Pressure sensor
 * 3, 2 gram pieces of Liver
 * 1) 45mL of Hydrogen Peroxide
 * 2) 20 drops HCl
 * 3) 20 drops NaOH
 * 4) Rubber Stopper
 * 5) Lab Pro device

Procedure:
 * 1) Cut three 2 gram pieces of liver
 * 2) In a 50mL beaker measure out 15mL of Hydrogen Peroxide
 * 3) Put one piece of liver in a flask
 * 4) Put the rubber stopper in the top, and hook up the equipment to the computer
 * 5) Using a 5mL syringe pick up the 15mL Hydrogen Peroxide
 * 6) Begin recording using the computer software
 * 7) Inject the Hydrogen peroxide over the liver
 * 8) After 1 minute record how much pressure was created in the flask.
 * 9) In a new beaker mix 15mL of Hydrogen Peroxide with 20 drops of HCl
 * 10) Repeat steps 2-3
 * 11) Using a 5mL Syringe pick up the Hydrogen Peroxide, HCl Mixture.
 * 12) Begin recording using the computer software
 * 13) Inject the mixture over the liver
 * 14) Repeat steps 8
 * 15) In a new 50mL beaker mix 15mL of hydrogen Peroxide, with 20 drops of NaOH
 * 16) Repeat steps 2-3
 * 17) Using a 5mL syring pick up the Hydrogen Peroxide, NaOH Mixture
 * 18) Begin recording using the computer software
 * 19) Inject the mixture over the liver
 * 20) Repeat steps 8

Analysis Questions

1. Our variable was the base and acid environment we created for the enzymes to determine whether the catalase worked more efficiently with an acid or base surrounding. Our data shows us that the enzymes work quicker with an less acidic environment. Our graph shows the rate increase of the acidic environment as a flat line, showing that the pressure inside the flask was increasing slowly, which also represents the speed the catalase were working at. The pressure in the base flask increased quickly which is represented by the almost straight vertical line shown on our graph, this line represents the enzymes speed which was clearly had a greater pressure increase rate than the acid flask.

2. A source of error that may have affected our data was in the base flask the pressure increased quickly, making the cap of the flask pop off and our graph stop recording the increase of pressure. If we were to do this lab again a way to counteract the cap popping of would be to tape the cap to the flask. We also tried having one partner hold down the cap which did prevent the cap from popping off, but it took up a lot of room and made it more troublesome to pump the base and acid into the flask. Another source of error was that we only ran a trial for the acid and control flasks once, in order to get a more accurate rate of pressure increase we should have ran the procedure again and took the average of the two runs. We ran our base and hydrogen peroxide flask, three times in order to find an accurate rate of increase result. To ensure our data is reliable we should have run the acid and base flask more than once.

3. The function of the peroxisome is to break down food particles. The peroxisome participates in your metabolism, it has many enzymes working to break down the food you eat into energy your body can use.The catalase are located in the peroxisome along with many other enzymes which would provide evidence that the peroxisomes major function is breaking down metabolites into energy or waste for your body.

4. If a person consumes ecstasy at a party, the functioning of their liver decreases. If person were to consume alcohol at the same party, just prior to, or after consuming ecstasy, their liver will be unable to process the alcohol as well. Also, the general body temperature increases due to physical activity, such as dancing at a party. This in combination with the ecstasy would effectively decrease liver function to a dangerously low level. Possible risks could be of consuming ecstasy, is the liver becomes less able to process waste, and when used in combination with alcohol and physical activity, it could lead to alcohol poisoning, and/or death.

5. a. If i were the owner of a cheese factory and I needed the catalase to work and break down the H202 the best, I would need to make sure it was under the most optimtimum circumstances. There is a specific pH level, temperature, and other things that all affect how well the catalse works. If the catalase is going to work at its prime I would simulate the human body conditions in the factory. It would need to match the temperature of the environment that it is in while in the body. I would also, in the beakers or test tubes, have the same pH level that the human body provides which is around 7.4. These factors would all help to ensure the peak performance of the catalase. b. I would not ever be able to allow the temperature of the catalase to go above a certain level because they all have an optimimum at which they work at and if the catalase goes above that, then it is in danger of denaturizing. This is ultimately the deactivisation of an enzyme and without the catalase in the factory, the H2O2 would not be broken down before pasteurization of the milk. Using catalase is very risky because even if there is a slight temperature change, the end result can be quite destructive.

=== Conclusion: The experiment that my group and I did showed how the pH of the environment of the liver affected the oxygen pressure. Our hypothesis stated that we thought that when the pH was lower, or more acidic, that the oxygen pressure would be greater but in fact, we were wrong. The hydrogen Peroxide that we added to the liver before the acid or base was slightly acidic so, by adding base, it brought the environment back down to about neutral, or around natural body pH level. This allowed the catalase to act more normally and in effect, create more oxygen. This is because the hydrogen peroxide was broken down and the oxygen from it increased the pressure inside of the beaker. When we added more acid to the liver and hydrogen peroxide, it blocked the catalase from breaking the hydrogen peroxide down, and in effect, the oxygen pressure was lower. The environment was not at the optimum pH and therefore the processes could not happen as smoothly with the lower pH. This experiment shows how emzymes, and in this situation, catalase can only function when the environment is at the optimum pH level, and when it is not, then chemical processes cannot work as well. In your body, it is absolutely necessary to maintain a steady pH because if there is a flaw, then as one can see here, the processes will not happen well. This lab cleared many misconceptions about how the pH affects bodily functions by showing a real example that can be backed up by our data. ===