Question

Some sea-snakes' red blood cells (RBC) have an osmolarity as high as 0.350 osmol/L. Assuming that sea-snake RBC membranes are impermeable to NaCl, what would happen if sea-snake RBCs are mixed with a NaCl solution of 0.280 osmol/L?

Pick 1.

A) Cells will swell

B) Cells will remain the same size

C)Cells will shrink and show a crenated appearance

Answer 1

Osmosis is a special diffusion process. in this process, the water moves from its high concentration to its lower concentration.

Osmolarity is the concentration of solutes in one liter of solution.

Sea-snake's RBC has osmolarity 0.350 osmol/L and these RBCs put in a solution of NaCl have 0.280 osmol/L which is lower than the RBCs osmolarity value. Water concentration is high in NaCl solution so water moves into RBCs through the membrane ( Nacl can't move into RBCs because the given condition is NaCl is impermeable) and then RBCs swell up.

Ans: cells will swell