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A red blood cell placed in water will lyse or burst. The red blood cell is hypertonic in comparison to the pure water (hypotonic). Water will rush in to equalize the concentrations via osmosis, and the cell will lyse.

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13y ago

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When a red blood cell is placed in pure water, water will flow into the cell due to osmosis. The cell will swell and eventually burst, a process known as hemolysis. This is because the water concentration inside the cell is lower than in the pure water, causing water to move into the cell to try to equalize the concentrations.

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9mo ago
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Distilled water is hyposmotic to the interior of a blood cell, so water will begin to enter the blood cell, causing it swell, and burst.

Distilled water is what is known as a hypotonic solution (meaning it has low salt levels)

If a red blood cell is placed into a hypotonic solution then the water concentration inside the cell is lower than outside the cell. The salt concentration is higher inside the cell than outside

Due to the process of osmosis (water will travel from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration) Water enters the red blood cell, increasing the pressure inside the cells. Red blood cells only have a thin membrane, they therefore can not cope with this high pressure and will eventually burst.

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14y ago
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Since there is more salt in the cell than outside the cell, water would move IN to the cell. Water always follows salt when there is a cell membrane involved. The water outside will try to dilute the salt inside so the concentration of salt to water is the same. The problem is that the cell membrane can not expand enough for this to happen and the cell will break.

It will swell and burst.
it will swell and then burst
it wouldn't shrivel
it will swell and burst that's why people say to put water on a cut so it would stop the bleeding.

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11y ago
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Normal (and especially distilled) water should be hypotonic (have less solutes) to a red blood cell. This means that there will be a net movement of water into the cell and it could eventually burst.

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12y ago
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absorb water and explode
Well, a process called Cytolysis will occur, meaning the incoming H2O on the red blood cell will be too much for it, causing the cell to explode.

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14y ago
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Nothing, plasma is isotonic to a blood cell

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16y ago
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A red blood cell placed into a container of distilled water will gain water via osmosis. An example of positive feedback mechanism is blood clotting.

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10y ago
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swell and lyse

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Wiki User

13y ago
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it would swell and burst

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12y ago
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Q: What happens if you put a red blood cell in pure water?
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What happens if a cell is dropped into a container of pure water?

If a cell is dropped into pure water, water will enter the cell by osmosis. This can cause the cell to swell and potentially burst due to the increased pressure within the cell.


What happens in a animal cell in pure water an why does this not happen in a plant cell?

It can possibly burst.


Will red blood cells shrink in a hypotonic solution?

hypotonic solutionhigh concentration of pure (or fresh)water outside cell (and therefore low concentration of solute outside cell)Low concentration of pure water inside cell (high concentration of solute inside cell)since there are so many organelles and dissolved substances in a red blood cell we can assume there is a relatively smallconcentration of pure water and a relatively highconcentration of solute (in the form of organelles/dissolved substances).water naturally follows an osmotic gradient (from a high concentration of pure water to a low concentration of pure water). in other words water will try to dilute a concentrated substance.since there is a high concentration of pure water outside the cell and a low concentration of pure water inside the cell (i.e.: cell is in a hypotonic solution) the water from the outside of cell enters the cell via osmosis and tries to dilute the blood cell.Now to answer your question :) since there is sooooo much water following the osmotic gradient from the high concentration of pure water outside to the low concentration of pure water inside the cell will burst (or lyse), much like trying to put too much water into a ballon.this is why people drown faster when inhaling fresh pure water from a lake than they do when inhaling less pure water from the sea.for the blood cell to shrink it would need to be placed in a hypertonic solution which is the exact opposite of the definition given above.


What would happen to red blood cells in the body if blood lost through injury were replaced with pure water?

If blood lost through injury were replaced with pure water, the red blood cells would swell and eventually burst due to osmotic imbalance. The lack of electrolytes and proteins in pure water would disrupt the osmotic balance within the cells, causing them to take in too much water and ultimately lyse. This would result in decreased oxygen-carrying capacity and could be life-threatening.


What happens if a cell is placed in a pure water?

In this case the solution is hypotonic in relation to the cell. The cell swells up and ruptures as the water rushes in, and since the animal cell has no cell wall it cannot become turgid (stop letting in water), therefore the cell will rupture.