Anatomy and Physiology I :?

Question

Would the invasion of a cell by viruses increase, decrease, or have no effect on the osmolarity of a cell? Pls. Explain it!

Answer 1

I found this off a site maybe it will help ^^ There is a lot of info
The M2 protein of influenza virus serves as an ion channel (974). Whether the insertion of this channel into the host membrane alters cell volume is not known. Tacaribe virus infection was shown to inhibit Na+-K+-ATPase (996), and vaccinia virus infection of HeLa cells led to increases of Na+ at the expense of K+ (899). Infection of fibroblasts with herpes simplex virus leads to profound cell swelling (441). Cell swelling was enhanced in the presence of the antiviral drug 3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine, which inhibits ICln , the putative volume regulatory Cl- channel (441). Infection of renal tubule cells with simian virus 40 results in the appearance of K+ channels (1199). Changes in cell volume, on the other hand, may influence viral replication. For instance, a decrease of extracellular NaCl has been shown to reduce replication of reticuloendotheliosis (93) and Sindbis virus (1290) as well as maturation of poliovirus (5). Furthermore, infection of MDCK cells with vesicular stomatitis virus is impaired by increasing extracellular K+ at the expense of Na+ (7), a maneuver known to induce cell swelling (see Table 2). The effect could not be explained by altered intracellular Ca2+ activity but was assumed to be secondary to a depolarization of the cell membrane (7). In duck hepatocytes, increase of extracellular osmolarity markedly reduced duck hepatitis B virus DNA, mRNA, and protein (904). Because shrinkage of hepatocytes leads to depolarization (406), the effect could have been due to either depolarization or cell shrinkage.

Answer 2

I have taken more anatomy and physiology than medical students get. From my perspective, anatomy is harder because it requires a lot of memory. Physiology is study of anatomy in action. It requires more analytical skills, but it is much easier for me.