Explain what would happen if a red blood cell was placed in pure water rather than plasma, which is balanced solution of water, salts, sugar and other material

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Biology

10 November, 19:37

Explain what would happen if a red blood cell was placed in pure water rather than plasma, which is balanced solution of water, salts, sugar and other material

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Jasper Barrett · Answer 1

If a red blood cell was placed in pure water rather than plasma, which is balanced solution of water, salts, sugar and other material it causes haemolysis.

Explanation:

If in case Red blood cells are kept in a solution having lower solute concentration than the concentration found inside the cell, it will be observed that the water is moving inside the cell by the process of osmosis. Which results in the swelling of the cell. This solution are hypotonic to the cell. Incase of hypotonic situations, as the extracellular fluid present outside has reduced concentration of solutes so as inside the cell, water enters the cell, sometimes it leads to the bursting of the cell. The process is called as haemolysis.