Dependência térmica da osmoestabilização de eritrócitos por glicerol

Abstract

The biological organization complexes, which comprise proteins, membranes, chromosomes, organelles, cells and tissues, have to keep their stabilities against the deleterious action of factors as variations in temperature, pH and concentration of solutes. Among the protective mechanisms is the stabilization promoted by the action of solutes generally called as osmolytes. Our aim here is understand the origin of such stabilizing action. Thus, we tried to give emphasis in the structural aspects of the membranes that could constitute a target of the osmostabilizing action of the cosmotropic solutes. Since this action has been more profoundly studied in terms of the stabilization of proteins, we also presented the theory more largely commented about the protein stabilization by osmolytes. We believe that the same thermodynamic paradigms used in the study of the action of osmolytes on proteins would bring satisfactory answers about the intimate nature of the osmostabilization of membranes.