Question

When a drop of blood is added to distilled water the red blood cells swell up and burst. Suggest an explanation as for why this happens.

Answer 1

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101027055525AAU2JCI

Answer 2

The cells swell and burst because of a cytolysis (osmotic lysis). This happens because the red blood cell is put into a hypotonic solution: distilled water. Due to the fact that the salt concentration is lower in water, it will try to equalize the concentration by forcing water into the red blood cell.

Answer 3

Red blood cell (animal cell) doesnt have cell wall, so the cell became swell and burst when put into hypotonic solution. Following the concentration gradient. from high to lower concentration water from distilled water move into the red blood cell.

Answer 4

this is due to the fact that distilled water has a lesser concentrations of salt than the RBC (red bld cell), hence the water moves in as a result of osmosis in order to equilibrate the concentration of salts on both sides of the membrane, since there is no salt in distilled water, more and more water moves in and the cell swells until it eventually bursts. On the other hand, sea water has more salt than the RBC, which cause the water from the RBC to move out of the cell and into the solution, causing it to shrink.