What Would Happen To An Animal Cell If Put Into Hypotonic Solution

Agreement Prison cell Pressure Gradients

In animals, cells are ever striving to maintain an equilibrium between their internal (intracellular) environment and the surrounding (extracellular) environs. The barrier between the jail cell and the outside world is a semipermeable membrane called the cell membrane. Besides water, the extracellular environment for cells in the human body includes plasma, proteins, fats, glucose, waste products, ions, and other substances. These dissolved materials are called solutes. Similar solutes are also nowadays inside cells.

Osmosis is a spontaneous homeostatic process where water moves from an surface area of low solute concentration to high solute concentration through a semipermeable membrane. This is a natural process reflecting the preference of systems to achieve and maintain equilibrium. The amount of water outside a cell compared to the inside creates an osmotic pressure gradient which causes water to move. In other words, if there are more solutes exterior the cell than inside, water will move out of the cell to equalize the solute level inside. Conversely, more solutes inside the cell compared to the exterior surroundings causes water to enter the cell. The process by which organisms maintain water residual is called osmoregulation.

Hypertonic Solutions

For a word most what happens to a cell in a hypertonic solution, 'solution' refers to the extracellular environment. Hyper is a Latin prefix meaning over or to a higher place. Therefore, a hypertonic solution has more than solutes than the intracellular environs, and so water will leave the cell to try to achieve equilibrium. If plenty water is lost, the cell volition take on a wrinkled or shriveled appearance. In red blood cells this is called crenation and the surface of the cells take on a scalloped advent. A loftier amount of water loss can exist damaging or fifty-fifty fatal for a cell.

How Some Organisms Overcome Hypertonic Solutions

Marine organisms often live in hypertonic environments compared to their internal body chemistry. Species tin live in such environments because they have evolved adaptive mechanisms. Fish, for example, employ the large surface area of their gills for gas exchange with the saltwater. Nonetheless, due to osmosis, the cells in the gills continually lose water to the sea. The fish overcome this past drinking big amounts of saltwater and excreting the excess salt. This process allows them to maintain fluid homeostasis while living in a hypertonic environment.

Isotonic and Hypotonic Solutions

An isotonic solution has a solute concentration equal to that inside of the cell. This is a state of equilibrium and no h2o moves in or out through the semipermeable membrane. In contrast, a hypotonic solution has less solute than inside the cell, similar putting a cell in distilled water. In this situation, water enters the cell, and if left uncontrolled it can cause the cell to burst (lyse) and die.

Osmotic pressure on blood cells diagram
The prototype higher up shows what happens to red claret cells in hypertonic, isotonic, and hypotonic solutions. Notation the movement of water based on the solute concentration of the extracellular fluid.

References

OpenStax College. (2018). Anatomy & Physiology. Houston, TX. OpenStax CNX. Retrieved from http://cnx.org/contents/14fb4ad7-39a1-4eee-ab6e-3ef2482e3e22@8.119

Tonicity. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved April xvi, 2018 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonicity

Cite This Article

MLA APA Chicago

Biologydictionary.net Editors. "What Happens to a Cell in a Hypertonic Solution." Biology Dictionary, Biologydictionary.net, 22 Apr. 2018, https://biologydictionary.net/what-happens-to-a-cell-in-a-hypertonic-solution/.

Biologydictionary.cyberspace Editors. (2018, April 22). What Happens to a Prison cell in a Hypertonic Solution. Retrieved from https://biologydictionary.net/what-happens-to-a-jail cell-in-a-hypertonic-solution/

Biologydictionary.internet Editors. "What Happens to a Cell in a Hypertonic Solution." Biology Lexicon. Biologydictionary.net, April 22, 2018. https://biologydictionary.net/what-happens-to-a-cell-in-a-hypertonic-solution/.