EMMALEE BORDELON - Mystery of the Flea Dip
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Mystery of the Flea Dip
Introduction
This is a fictitious story about a death caused by exposure to a commercial substance used to treat fleas in
pets.
Read the background passage below and use the autopsy information to determine the specific cause
of death in the cell respiration processes in the girl.
You’re working at a medical examiner’s office at San Francisco County Hospital.
It
has been a particularly light day, with only one homicide and a dead chipmunk that
you checked over for rabies.
The chipmunk didn’t have rabies, and you’re ready to
go home.
Just as you’re flipping the switch, you get a call from your secretary.
“Francesca,” he says.
“We’ve got a dead kid up here that you’ll want to look at right
away.
Might be foul play.”
“Thinking of your four year-old daughter waiting for you at home, you grimace.
“Okay Jon, I’m heading to the morgue.”
Performing autopsies on kids is your least
favorite part of the job.
But, you are paid to solve medical mysteries, and it looks
like you’ve got one here.”
In the morgue, you find the report from the hospital.
Glancing over it, you notice the
narrative of the girl’s last hours and read it carefully:
At 10 A.M., mother returns from the store to find the girl vomiting, not feeling well,
and sleepy.
Mother put the girl to bed.
Ten minutes later, she noticed that the child’s
breathing became irregular and slow.
She tried to wake her daughter up, but was not
able to do so.
At noon, the girl was admitted to the hospital with no heartbeat or
spontaneous breathing.
The parents discovered that the girl had been giving her dog
a bath using a flea dip called Fleacide
.
Credit: Baines, A. T., M. Mcvey, B. Rybarczyk, J. T. Thompson, and H. R. Wilkins. "Mystery of the
Toxic Flea Dip: An Interactive Approach to Teaching Aerobic Cellular Respiration." Cell Biology
Education (2004): 62-68. Print.
Autopsy Report
The autopsy showed massive cell death in the girl’s thymus gland, kidneys, lungs, and heart.
Staining
with cellular dyes showed high rates of mitochondrial damage within the affected tissues.
Chemical
analysis of the dead cells showed low levels of ATP in her mitochondria, but normal levels in her
cytoplasm. Acetyl-CoA levels were normal.
Analysis Questions
Answer these questions using information in the autopsy report and your notes on cell respiration.
Written by James Dauray
http://www.aurumscience.com
Page
1
1.
Which specific part of cell respiration was impacted by the Fleacide – glycolysis, the citric acid
cycle, or the electron transport chain?
Justify your answer from the data.
Since the ATP was absent from the mitochondria there is an indication that the electron transport chain
was impaired.
2.
Why were so many different organs and tissues affected?
So many different organs were affected because there was damage that occurred at the cellular level.
3.
What molecule is necessary for the parts of cell respiration that were apparently not occurring in
the girl’s mitochondria?
The molecule that is necessary for the parts of the cellular respiration that were apparently not occurring
in the girl's mitochondria was the electron transport chain.
Subcellular Analysis
The initial cause of death seems to be a lack of oxygen.
However, looking over her blood results, you see
normal oxygen levels present in her blood.
Confused, you ask the lab technicians to perform a subcellular
analysis of her mitochondria for four specific compounds.
These are the results:
●
Note: Moles (mol) is a unit of measurement of the number of molecules of a substance.
µ is a
metric prefix meaning “micro”.
It represents one millionth of a unit.
Thus, 1 µmol is one
millionth of a mole of that molecule.
4.
The report indicates elevated levels of
glucose/NADH
and low levels of
pruvate/NAD+
.
5.
Explain the NAD+ measurements.
The NAD+ measurements are so low because the first step of the electron transport chain was disrupted.
6.
Why were the NADH levels so high?
What cell process
should be
occurring to use it up?
The NADH levels are so high because they are being blocked by the fleacide and not utilized throughout
the electron transport chain.
7.
If you had access to a supplement that would have restored NAD+ levels in the mitochondria,
would that have cured her toxicity?
Explain why or why not.
If there were access to a supplement which would restore the nad+ I don't think it would have
helped because the low levels of nad+ were just an outcome of the poison and not the cause. this
means that it would probably help an increase of nadh but will not help this function in the electron
transport chain / citric acid.
8.
If something in the flea dip was interfering with this process, would the girl have been saved if she
had been immediately given an oxygen mask?
Explain why or why not.
No because more oxygen in the body would not solve the defect in the electron transport chain.
9.
What exactly were her cells unable to do or make that caused the tissue death?
The exact cause of the tissue death was the fleacide blocking the function of nadh therefore blocking
the electron transport chain as a whole.
10.
The poison in this story was based on cyanide, a real toxin that affects cell respiration.
Perform
some research and find out what process it disrupts, and what symptoms it causes in the victim.
Cyanide disrupts the process of the electron transport chain which will cause them to no longer pump
electrons into the intermembrane. symptoms caused by cyanide poisoning include dizziness, Headache,
nausea, vomiting, and Rapid breathing
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