Biology 165                                                                     Name: ________________________

Group Project

 

 

A case study about dinitrophenol (DNP)ÑThis case study allows students to investigate the concept of chemiosmosis and the consequences of oxidative uncoupling.

   

One day during winter break, Susan was talking with her grandmother. While reminiscing about her college years in the 1930s, grandmother recalled a sad memory.

 

When she was a junior in college, she had a good friend named Barbara who became very sick and died during the spring semester. Like many young women, Barbara had been preoccupied with her weight. She was planning to work as a model the following summer and wanted to lose weight before then. A new miracle diet pill had just come on the market, and Barbara began taking it. Figuring that more was better, she took more than the recommended amount of pills. Before long, Barbara began experiencing blurry vision and a constant high fever that she couldnÕt get rid of. Barbara eventually died, and her death was ultimately blamed on the diet pills. The pills were later taken off the market because they caused cataracts and sometimes death in many people who were taking them.

 

Susan was fascinated. She asked her grandmother why the pills made people die, but her grandmother didnÕt know. All she remembered was that they were called Dinistriso, and had something called DNP in them.

 

Help Susan figure out why these diet pills were killing people. What is DNP, and why would it be in a diet pill? Why would it cause the symptoms that Barbara was experiencing, and why did it eventually kill her? What is DNP (legally) used for today? Why does it work for that purpose?

 

Here is a list of Web-based resources for you to start your investigate:

 

á       http://firstagency.com/02ConsumerProtection/FDAActions/bachynsky.html

 

á       http://www.fda.gov/cder/about/history/Histext.htm

 

á       http://www.biology.arizona.edu/biochemistry/problem_sets/metabolism/04t.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biology 165                                                                            Name: ________________________

Assignment                                                                            

15 pts.                                                                                     Name: ________________________

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Name: _____________________

 

                                                                                                Name: _____________________

 

In groups of three- four, complete the following.  Each group is to turn in one of these sheets, so make sure everyoneÕs name is at the top.

 

1.    What is DNP, and why would it be in a diet pill?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.    How does DNP affect the process of cellular respiration?  Be sure to include which part of cellular respiration it affects and how.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.    Why would DNP cause the symptoms that Barbara was experiencing, and why did it eventually kill her?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.    What is DNP (legally) used for today? Why does it work for that purpose?