Question

What is an example of osmosis in the human body?

Answer 1

Osmosis:

1. The movement of solvent molecules or diffusion of solvent molecules such as water through a semipermeable membrane of a cell from a region of lower concentration of solution to a region of higher solution concentration.
2. The semipermeable membrane of a cell is a plasma membrane that allows only certain molecules and ions to pass through the cell, thus it is called a selectively permeable membrane.
3. When two solutions with different concentrations of solute are separated by a semipermeable membrane, then osmosis occurs.

Example of osmosis in the human body :

1. The cells of the human body absorb water from the intestine by osmosis.
2. In the human body osmosis regulates the flow of dissolved solids, liquids, and gases across the semipermeable membrane of cells that selectively allows certain substances to pass in and out of the cell,
3. This also assists in releasing toxic metabolic waste products such as urea.

Kidney dialysis:

1. In the process of kidney dialysis the dialyzer removes all the waste products from a patient’s blood through a dialyzing membrane (semipermeable membrane) and passes them into the dialysis solution tank.
2. The red blood cells of patients are larger so cannot pass through the membrane and are retained in the blood.
3. This whole process describes how osmosis helps to remove the waste materials from the blood.