When a human red blood cell is placed in a hypotonic environment, it will?

Question

A. Undergo cytolysis
B. Undergo Plasmolysis
C. Experience a decrease in turgor pressure
D. Be at equilibrium

Answer 1

Water will enter the cell as the concentration of solutes inside and outside the cell tries to equilibrate. It will expand and eventually break the membrane, I believe this is cytolysis. In red cells this is known as hemolysis.

Answer 2

I don't think it can be (B) plasmolysis because that only happens in plant cells (the cell membrane shrinks away from the cell wall)...

If the membrane of the blood cell is permeable to the solutes inside (they can pass freely across the membrane, go in and out of the cell), then they will go out of the cell because the environment outside the cell is less concentrated than the inside of the cell, and things always move from areas where they are more concentrated to where they are less concentrated. The cell will shrink, become limp.

If the membrane of the blood cell is NOT permeable to the solutes inside, then the hypotonic solution it is in will rush into the cell because it wants to sort of neutralize the solutes that are already there. (Put more complexly, there is a lower concentration of the hypotonic solution inside the red blood cell, so it will go there). The cell will then become turgid.

Answer 3

this question is very confusing none of the answers are correct because a HUMAN red blood cell, also an animal cell, would lyse, or burst, in a hypotonic environment. (turgor pressure and plasmolysis occur in PLANT cells; the cell would only be at equilibrium if the solution was isotonic, and cytosis is irrelevant to the question, referring to the transport of molecules.)

Answer 4

B. under go plasmolysis
This is due to the dehydration of the cell by the water leaving caused by the greater concentration of the solution outside the cell. A good way to remember plasmolysis is to think of the plasma membrane and how it pulls apart from the cell wall.