Invertebrate Zoology, Box - Research Paper Example

The fluid was centrifuged to separate liquid portion from the cellular constituents, which include the coelomocytes. The foreign bodies introduced to it were the red blood cells of a rabbit. The effect of some heavy metals, which are a part of industrial waste, was to be studied by Canicatti and Grasso. The three heavy metals used were zinc, mercury and cadmium. It was noted that among these metals, only zinc had an effect on immune response system and it varied considerably with the concentration of zinc.

Zinc concentration of 1 mm or higher greatly reduced the breakdown activity. This was true both for the liquid part and the cellular part of the coelomic fluid. In contrast to this, lower zinc concentration led to increased lytic activity. At a concentration of 4 mm of zinc, the agglutination of red blood cells was not affected at all by zinc. Only the lytic activity was being affected at this concentration. The cellular portion always dominates in terms of contributing in the immune system when compared to the liquid portion.

The contribution of liquid portion increased at a concentration of 0.25 mm zinc, but still remains below that of the cellular portion. The immune system is most responsive at 0.5 mm concentration of zinc. The immune response drastically decreases above 0.5 mm of zinc concentration. Table of Contents Summary of Findings 2 Abstract 4 INTRODUCTION 5 BASIS OF HYPOTHESIS 5 RESEARCH 5 METHODOLOGY 5 DATA COLLECTION 6 ORGANISMS COLLECTION 6 DESIGN 7 FUNDING 7 SIGNIFICANCE & CONCLUSION 8 REFERENCES 9 Abstract This paper formulates a hypothesis on how further research regarding the above experiment.

Using the same scientific method the paper gives a short brief on how to formulate the project, collect data and organisms along with the design and funding of the project. Furthermore significance of the project along with the initially conclusion has been outlined. Keywords: Hypothesis, design, significance INTRODUCTION The findings of the Canicatti and Grasso (1988) were not conclusive. They left many questions unanswered. It left a big space for further research in this topic. Some of the questions which arise after the findings are: Would the same effects be observed if these tests were conducted on intact animals?

Do organic pollutants have a similar effect on immune response system? Among the metals tested, why was zinc the only one which had an effect on the immune response system? Does zinc also have effects on the immune system of other animals? BASIS OF HYPOTHESIS I hypothesize that zinc would have a similar effect on the immune response system of other animals too. My basis of this hypothesis is that the immune system of all animals works in almost similar ways. Foreign bodies entering the territory of the body are attached by cells within the body and broken down, or are encapsulated and destroyed (Shankar & Prasad, 1998).

This way their harmful effects are nullified. RESEARCH Before getting involved in the experimental procedure, it is important to further research the topic. To get background knowledge of the topic, numerous research articles have to be read related to this topic. From the work already done, it is established that zinc does have an effect on the immune response system of animals (Prasad 2008). Is the effect same for every animal is the question that needs to be answered. METHODOLOGY A research project has to be formulated for this study.

The tests can be