Name:___________________________________________________Date:_________ Section:___________

Case Study – Osmosis

Osmosis:
When materials need to be transported across the cell membrane, either into or out of the cell, cellular transport
occurs. When molecules are moved from a high to low concentration across the membrane, this process is called
passive transport because no energy is used. The movement of any molecule across the cell membrane through
passive transport is called diffusion. However, when diffusion of water molecules takes place, the process is called
osmosis. This process is constantly happening in every cell in the human body!

Red Blood Cells:

Red blood cells are normally isotonic to the blood. This means that the amount of water entering each red
blood cell is the same as the amount of water exiting each cell. Red blood cells only remain isotonic with
the blood if the salt/water concentrations inside and outside of the cell are the same. If these concentrations
change, it is possible for the cell to lose too much water and become hypertonic or gain too much water and
become hypotonic. The image below shows what these conditions look like in red blood cells. If a red blood
cell is isotonic, it should look somewhat like a doughnut!

IV Fluid:
If a patient goes to the hospital and needs an IV, he or she is usually given an IV with a 0.9% salt solution.
This keeps everything in the blood balanced. If a mistake is made and a patient receives an IV solution with a
salt concentration that is too high, water will rush out of the cell to balance the salt in the fluid outside of the
cell. This will cause the cell to become hypertonic, lose mass (become smaller), and have a shriveled
appearance like a raisin. Similarly, if a patient receives an IV solution with a salt concentration that is too low,
water will rush into the cell to balance the salt inside of the cell. This will cause the cell to become hypotonic,
gain mass (become larger), and have an over-sized appearance. These hypotonic cells may even burst if they
become too overfilled with water.
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Name:___________________________________________________Date:_________ Section:___________

Case Study – Kim

The following paragraph describes a situation that recently occurred at a local hospital.

A sick patient came to the emergency room. Kim, a nurse, was asked to insert an IV into the
patient’s arm. Kim inserted the IV, and the fluid immediately began to flow into the patient’s arm.
After a few minutes, the patient’s heart began to race and then abruptly stopped. After he had been
declared dead, Kim realized that she had used an IV with the wrong salt concentration, and she
began to panic! Kim decided to run three different tests on the patient’s blood to make sure that she
had not made a fatal mistake. This evidence is described below.

Evidence #1:
Kim took a sample of the patient’s blood and looked at one of his red blood cells under a microscope.
She then did the same with a sample of her own healthy blood. These results are shown below.

Kim’s Red Blood Cell: Patient’s Red Blood Cell

Evidence #2:
Kim also used a special scale to take the mass of several red blood cells from the patient’s blood
sample and her own blood sample. This data is listed in the table below. The mass of a red
blood cell is measured in picograms which is WAYYYY smaller than a gram!
Kim: Patient:

Red Blood Cell #1’s

27 35
Mass:

Red Blood Cell #2’s

28 37
Mass:

Red Blood Cell #3’s

26 36
Mass:
Evidence #3:
Kim used a special microscope to take a video of the red blood cells in the patient’s sample. This is
shown in the video clip below. Miss Ottolini will show this video in class, but if you would like to
view it at home, the link is below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYoaLzobQmk

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(Note: play the video from 0:45-0:58)

***Note: The tests mentioned above are NOT how doctors typically make a diagnosis.

Directions: Using all of the evidence and information given to you, answer the questions
below.

1. What is osmosis? Is osmosis an example of passive or active transport?

Osmosis is the diffusion of water across a selective permeable membrane. Water moves down
from a higher concentration to a region of low concentration, which does not use any energy,
making it an example of a passive transport.

2. Explain how osmosis causes a red blood cell to become hypertonic, become hypotonic, or
remain isotonic with the blood.
Osmosis occurs in response to the concentration of solutes dissolves in water which makes a
solution exist inside and outside the cell. When the concentration of solutes surrounding the
cell is equal with the concentration of solutes inside the cell, it is Isotonic. However, when the
concentration of the solutes surrounding the cell is higher than the concentration inside the cell,
it’s Hypertonic which makes cell shrinks. While Hypotonic has a higher concentration of
solutes inside the cell. In this situation, the water moves into the cell which can increase in
size and cause swelling.

3. Did Kim use an IV with a salt concentration that was too high or too low?
Too low
a. Explain how you know this using evidence from the microscope image on page 2.
How does Kim’s red blood cell appear different from the patient’s? Why is this the
case?
Since Kim gives the patient a IV with a low salt concentration, making the water
rushes inside the cell, which makes the patient’s RBC appears to be bigger than its
normal size and causing it to swell, while Kim’s RBC sample shows its normal state.
 b. Explain how you know this using evidence from the data table on page 2. Describe
the trend that you see.
Kim uses a special scale to weight the RBC from her patient’s blood sample and hers. The
cell weighed more than Kim's cell because the patient’s cells were filled with water due to
the low salt concentration of IV causing the cell to increase in size and mass while Kim's
cell were healthy and in its natural weight.

c. Explain how you know this using evidence from the video clip that was played in class.
What is happening to the patient’s red blood cells in the video? Why is this happening?
When the patient receives an IV with low salt concentration, the water that surrounds
the cell began on rushing into the cell causing it to swell and eventually burst.

Essay Response

Directions: On a separate sheet of paper, write your own response to the following prompt.

Explain what osmosis is. Describe how osmosis causes red blood cells to be hypotonic, hypertonic
or isotonic. Then, create a hypothesis that states whether Kim used an IV with a salt concentration
that was too high, or an IV with a salt concentration that was too low. Use all three pieces of
evidence from page 2 and the reading from the first page to support and explain your decision.
Use the rubric to guide you as you write your essay.

*Your essay should be 10-12 sentences in length.

Water diffusion, often known as osmosis, is a type of non-energy-requiring passive transport. Cells
can become hypotonic, hypertonic, or isotonic. When the cell and solution are isotonic, osmosis does
not occur since the water in and out is balanced. Red blood cell are usually isotonic to the blood. If a
patient goes to the hospital and needs an IV, They are usually given an IV with a 0.9% salt solution.
This keeps everything in the blood balanced. However, if the salt concentration change, it can be
hypertonic or hypotonic. Hypertonic solution makes the water would rush out of the cell if there was
less water outside than inside, causing the cell to shrivel. This will happen when a patient receives an
IV with a high salt concentration, causing the patient to be dehydrated. However, when there is less
water in the cell than there is out, water rushes in, causing the cell to expand and burst. The cell
would be in a hypotonic solution in this case. This would mean that Kim gave the patient an IV with
insufficient salt which explains the patient cells expand in both the photo and the video, and it
eventually ruptured in the video. The table revealed that the patient's cells weighed more than Kim's,
implying that the patient's cells contained more water than normal. As the result, the patient’s cells
burst and it eventually leads to the patients death.