Chemistry for Physiology

6000 μmol/L is the same as 6.0 mmol/L. All other values are less than 5.5 mmol/L.

The healthy range for blood osmolarity is 280–300 mosmol/L. A dehydrated person would have a blood osmolarity approaching or exceeding 300 mosmol/L.

Choice B is going in the wrong direction, while choices C and D are scrambled.

“Hyper-” means greater than the tonicity (or osmolarity) inside a RBC.

This is a definition of an acid. All other choices are wrong statements.

5% glucose is isotonic, so 10% must be hypertonic. Choices A and B are isotonic, while choice C is hypotonic.

Osmosis refers to the movement of water through a membrane in the direction of its concentration gradient. A 0.8% solution is hypotonic to the contents of the RBC so water would enter the cell. In both choice A and C, the water is moving due to a hydrostatic pressure difference.

Dietary carbohydrates are converted to simple sugars which are disassembled in mitochondria to produce ATP.

A hypotonic solution would result in an inflow of water to RBC. This would stretch their plasma membrane, and eventually it would break (burst).

The ability to produce hydronium ions with water defines an acid, not a buffer.