Question

You now find new cells which contains 200 mM CaCl2 and 15 mM glucose. The cell membrane is permeable to Ca ions, impermeable to Cl- ions, impermeable to Na ions and impermeable to glucose. You transfer these cells into a solution which has 140 mM (NaCl) and 150 mM glucose. What happens to the cells after the solution and cell have come to equilibrium

Answer 1

The correct answer would be - ions will move from solution 1 to solution 2 so the cell will shrink.

Step-by-step explanation:

The concentration of CaCl2- = 200mM

CaCl2 dissociates in the three different ions in a solution and each has the same osmolarity

The concentration of glucose = 15 mM

So, the osmolarity of solution 1 would be:

3 × 200 + 15= 615 mM

Similarly, the osmolarity of the second solution would be

The concentration of NaCl = 140 mM

The concentration of glucose = 150 mM

NaCl dissociates in the two different ions in a solution and each has the same osmolarity

140×2+ 150= 430 mM

The solution has more concentration of ions than solution two so the movement of the calcium ion of the CaCl2- would be possible only and therefore, the cell in solution 1 will shrink.