What are hyper, hypo and isotonic solutions? And what are their relation or use with/for cells?
What are hyper, hypo and isotonic solutions? And what are their relation or use with/for cells?
Hyper (tonic) Hyper is a synonym for “above or excessive“. Think of hyperactive kids which means overly active kids. Hypertonic solutions will have a higher concentration of solute than than the solution its being compared to.
Hypo (tonic) The root word hypo means “below“. Think of people who are in cold temperatures that get hypothermia. The body temperature is belownormal.
Iso (tonic) The root word iso means “equal”. If you remember hypertonic and hypotonic are higher and lower concentrations then isotonic must be the case where both solutions have equal concentration.
How Cells Respond Many times when talking about tonicity examples of red blood cells in a solution are used. In cases like this, a cell in solution, the tonicity refers to the environment around the cell and NOT the concentration inside the cell.
Hypertonic environment Hypertonic solutions will have a higher concentration of solute (glucose, salt, etc) than the cell. Mainly water will move across the cell membrane in order to even out the concentration of solutes in both the cell and the environment around the cell. The cell will shrink as water leaves the cell to decrease the higher concentration of solute in the environment.
Hypotonic environment Hypotonic environments will have a lower concentration of solute than the cell. Water will move from the environment into the cell in order to balance the concentration of solute. When water diffuses into the cell it will swell. Sometimes the cell may lyse or burst due to the excess water uptake.
Isotonic environment Isotonic environments have the same concentration of soules as the cell. Water will diffuse both in and out of the cell, but no net effect will be seen.
Hyper is a synonym for “above or excessive“. Think of hyperactive kids which means overly active kids. Hypertonic solutions will have a higher concentration of solute than than the solution its being compared to.
Hypo (tonic)The root word hypo means “below“. Think of people who are in cold temperatures that get hypothermia. The body temperature is belownormal.
Iso (tonic)The root word iso means “equal”. If you remember hypertonic and hypotonic are higher and lower concentrations then isotonic must be the case where both solutions have equal concentration.
How Cells RespondMany times when talking about tonicity examples of red blood cells in a solution are used. In cases like this, a cell in solution, the tonicity refers to the environment around the cell and NOT the concentration inside the cell.
Hypertonic environmentHypertonic solutions will have a higher concentration of solute (glucose, salt, etc) than the cell. Mainly water will move across the cell membrane in order to even out the concentration of solutes in both the cell and the environment around the cell. The cell will shrink as water leaves the cell to decrease the higher concentration of solute in the environment.
Hypotonic environmentHypotonic environments will have a lower concentration of solute than the cell. Water will move from the environment into the cell in order to balance the concentration of solute. When water diffuses into the cell it will swell. Sometimes the cell may lyse or burst due to the excess water uptake.
Isotonic environmentIsotonic environments have the same concentration of soules as the cell. Water will diffuse both in and out of the cell, but no net effect will be seen.
