What happens if you place human red blood cells in a concentrated salt solution

The red blood cell shrinks

Explanation:

According to the question, the solution the red blood cell was placed in has a concentrated salt solution, this implies that the solution is hypertonic i.e. high solute concentration in relation to the blood cell, or otherwise the red blood cell's content is hypotonic i.e. low solute concentration in relation to the extracellular solution.

Due to this difference in concentration between the cell and the external solution, an osmotic flow occurs. Osmosis is the movement of water from a region of low solute concentration/high solvent concentration to a region of high solute concentration/low solvent concentration through a semi-permeable membrane, which in this case is the membrane of the red blood cell. This osmotic gradient causes water to flow out of the red blood cell (where the solute concentration is low) to the extracellular solution (where the solute concentration is high).

Hence, the red blood cell loses water and shrinks or reduce in size.

fertilization, pictured in figure 24.23a is the process in which gametes (an egg and sperm) fuse to form a zygote. the egg and sperm each contain one set of chromosomes. to ensure that the offspring has only one complete diploid set of chromosomes, only one sperm must fuse with one egg. in mammals, the egg is protected by a layer of extracellular matrix consisting mainly of glycoproteins called the zona pellucida. when a sperm binds to the zona pellucida, a series of biochemical events, called the acrosomal reactions, take place. in placental mammals, the acrosome contains digestive enzymes that initiate the degradation of the glycoprotein matrix protecting the egg and allowing the sperm plasma membrane to fuse with the egg plasma membrane, as illustrated in figure 24.23b. the fusion of these two membranes creates an opening through which the sperm nucleus is transferred into the ovum. the nuclear membranes of the egg and sperm break down and the two haploid genomes condense to form a diploid genome.

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