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In order to keep the plasma isotonic, there needs to be enough dissolved materials (solutes) in it. And if the blood is not isotonic to the cells, they will swell (explode) or shrink, either way becoming less functional. The most important dissolved solutes in plasma are the albumins, without which blood could not remain isotonic to our cells. Albumins increase the number of solute particles, so that the blood is isotonic with RBC cytoplasm and with the extracellular fluid. Imagine if we didn't have albumins to do that... then your plasma solution would be hypotonic... Remember, water always leaves the hypotonic solution. That means, that the RBCs would be hypertonic and would receive the water... they would explode! And all the cells in the tissue would explode because water would flow by osmosis from the plasma into the extracellular solution and then onward into the cells. Yikes! To picture all of this, you may have to go back and review osmosis. I really did have web pages on it last semester, so now is a good time to review! |
© 2006 STCC Foundation Press |
