In osmosis, a solvent (usually water) is passed through a membrane based on the concentration of solvents on both sides of the membrane. Water is water, which creates a sense of balance between the substances on both sides of a membrane. Osmosis is the flow of water from a liquid to a solid or vice versa through the membranes of two or more different substances. Uncontrolled osmosis can lead to diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, liver and kidney cancer. In animal and plant cells, the interior of a cell is divided into cells similar to those in animal or plant cells or even cell to cell division. Even animal cells are chemically separated from their cell membranes by the flow of water through the membranes of their cells.
When different concentrations of solvents are present on both sides of a biological membrane, the water molecules are moved in different directions by the osmosis process. Osmosis pressure moves water molecules in such a way that the solvent molecules dissolved in water reach equilibrium and the water processes flow through the membrane. When a cell is immersed in water, the water molecules pass through the membrane in the opposite direction. Osmosis is one of the most important biological processes in human biology and in many other organisms. If the medium is hypertonic (in relation to the cytoplasm of the cell), the cells lose water faster than if it’s neutral. Essentially, this means that when a cell is placed in a solution with a higher concentration of solution than its own, it shrinks and , when placed in a medium with a high concentration of solvents (e.g salt water), swells and bursts. The water molecules, however, move in the opposite direction through the membrane, even if the cell sinks in the salt water. As already mentioned, osmosis can be counteracted by increased pressure (e.g by a higher concentration of solvents) and/or by the presence of other molecules in the medium.
The force per unit area (pressure) required to prevent osmosis (i.e the flow of particles from one part of the medium to another) is equivalent to the “osmotic pressure” of a turgor solution. When the solution is embedded in two different media, one of which has a low and one a high concentration of solution, the phenomenon is called osmosis. Osmotic force or force/unit-pressure range required to prevent the absorption of solvents by particles (e.g water) in the same medium is the equivalent of “osmosis” (in other words, it lets particles pass through without blocking each other). Osmotic pressure is the force required to prevent water from moving through a semi-permeable membrane (i.e the pressure of water in the membrane). The term osmosis, Greek for thrust or impulse, was first coined by J.A Nollet, who described an experiment in 1747 in which the bladder of an animal was used to separate two chambers with water and wine. A special kind of passive transport is the movement of water through a membrane by osmosis. By definition osmosis is a passive transfer of solvents from one side of the membrane to the other, and the concentration of each solvent must be different on both sides of the membrane. For osmosis to develop, the membranes must be either water permeable or impermeable to solids.
If there is an osmotic gradient (difference in salt concentration) on both sides of the semi-permeable membrane, water molecules will pass through it and penetrate into the cell, making it larger, or the opposite will happen, and there will be no outer cell. Osmosis is a passive transfer of solvents from a membrane, in which the solvents change from high to lower concentrations. To maintain a uniform solvent gradient, solvents must travel through the membrane at the same speed. The cell membrane allows water and salt molecules as well as other substances to flow through an area in which they are highly concentrated. Embedded in this membrane is a molecule of trans-membrane proteins, called channel protein. It moves from the outer to the inner layer and creates an osmotic gradient between the two layers for the molecules that travel through it.
Osmosis is a form of passive transport similar to diffusion, in which solvents are moved through a membrane at the same speed as water and other substances through the membrane. It is broken down by moving liquid from one area where solvents, such as salts, are present in low concentrations to another area where solvents are present in high concentrations, and vice versa. The final process of osmosis will result in an equal amount of fluid on both sides of the membrane. This is basically when solvent molecules are moved into a solution that contains less of it, which therefore works towards equilibrium. Osmotic tend to balance the soluble concentrations on both sides in a direction that tends to be more balanced.