Osmosis in animal cells

As you will remember animal cells have partially permeable cell membrane. This means that if they are placed in pure water because their cytoplasm is a stronger solution than the pure water, water will pass into the cells by osmosis. The cells will therefore swell up. However animal cells have no cell wall to stop them swelling too much so they keep swelling until they burst. We call this haemolysis.

 

 

 

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