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In animal cells excessive osmotic pressure can result in cytolysis due to the absence of a cell wall. Osmotic pressure is the basis of filtering ("reverse osmosis"), a process commonly used in water purification. The water to be purified is placed in a chamber and put under an amount of pressure greater than the osmotic pressure exerted by the ...
Osmoregulation is the active regulation of the osmotic pressure of an organism's body fluids, detected by osmoreceptors, to maintain the homeostasis of the organism's water content; that is, it maintains the fluid balance and the concentration of electrolytes (salts in solution which in this case is represented by body fluid) to keep the body fluids from becoming too diluted or concentrated.
When the solutes around a cell become more or less concentrated, osmotic pressure causes water to flow into or out of the cell to equilibrate. [8] This osmotic stress inhibits cellular functions that depend on the activity of water in the cell, such as the functioning of its DNA and protein systems and proper assembly of its plasma membrane. [9]
The rate at which fluid is filtered across vascular endothelium (transendothelial filtration) is determined by the sum of two outward forces, capillary pressure and interstitial protein osmotic pressure (), and two absorptive forces, plasma protein osmotic pressure and interstitial pressure (). The Starling equation describes these forces in ...
As the osmolyte concentration in fish cells scales linearly with pressure and therefore depth, osmolytes have been used to calculate the maximum depth where a fish can survive. Fish cells reach a maximum concentration of osmolytes at depths of approximately 26,900 feet (8,200 meters), with no fish ever being observed beyond 27,349 feet (8,336 ...
The process stops and equilibrium is attained when the pressure difference equals the osmotic pressure. Two laws governing the osmotic pressure of a dilute solution were discovered by the German botanist W. F. P. Pfeffer and the Dutch chemist J. H. van’t Hoff: The osmotic pressure of a dilute solution at constant temperature is directly ...
Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is a technique to separate a solvent (for example, fresh water) from a solution that is more concentrated (e.g. sea water) and also pressurized. A semipermeable membrane allows the solvent to pass to the concentrated solution side by osmosis . [ 1 ]
An osmometer is a device for measuring the osmotic strength of a solution, colloid, or compound.. There are several different techniques employed in osmometry: Freezing point depression osmometers may also be used to determine the osmotic strength of a solution, as osmotically active compounds depress the freezing point of a solution.