Will red blood cells shrink in a hypotonic solution?

Answer 1

hypotonic solution

• high concentration of pure (or fresh)water outside cell (and therefore low concentration of solute outside cell)
• Low concentration of pure water inside cell (high concentration of solute inside cell)

since there are so many organelles and dissolved substances in a red blood cell we can assume there is a relatively smallconcentration of pure water and a relatively highconcentration of solute (in the form of organelles/dissolved substances).

water naturally follows an osmotic gradient (from a high concentration of pure water to a low concentration of pure water). in other words water will try to dilute a concentrated substance.

since there is a high concentration of pure water outside the cell and a low concentration of pure water inside the cell (i.e.: cell is in a hypotonic solution) the water from the outside of cell enters the cell via osmosis and tries to dilute the blood cell.

Now to answer your question :) since there is sooooo much water following the osmotic gradient from the high concentration of pure water outside to the low concentration of pure water inside the cell will burst (or lyse), much like trying to put too much water into a ballon.

this is why people drown faster when inhaling fresh pure water from a lake than they do when inhaling less pure water from the sea.

for the blood cell to shrink it would need to be placed in a hypertonic solution which is the exact opposite of the definition given above.

Answer 2

That is very good question! Here I take the hypertonic saline solution. The cell shrinks in such solution. The cell membrane in selectively permeable to some of the ions, like potassium and magnesium. Sodium and calcium are not allowed there. These ions try to enter the cell and potassium and magnesium tries to leave the same by osmotic pressure. Most of the energy of cell is spent in pushing the sodium and calcium ions out and keeping in the potassium and magnesium in the cell. So in hypertonic solutions the water comes out instead to make out the osmotic balance and cell get shrunk out. The cell may die soon.

Answer 3

the red blood cells will shrink and become spiky looking because the water will diffuse out of the blood cells into the area of low water concentration (the hypotonic solution)

Answer 4

They actually shrink in size because they lose water when placed in a hypertonic solution (salty).

Answer 5

No, red blood cells will swell and potentially burst in a hypotonic solution, as water moves into the cell to equalize the concentration of solutes inside and outside the cell.