How do cells absorb nutrients from the blood?

How do cells absorb nutrients from the blood?

• A. The cells engulf the nutrients and bring them across the cell membrane into the cell.
• B. Cytoplasm in the cell helps the nutrients enter the cell.
• C. Nutrients in the blood diffuse out of capillaries into the extracellular fluid that surrounds the cell.
• D. The nutrients are broken down and can then pass into the cell

Answer: (C)

Nutrients move from the blood into surrounding tissue fluid by diffusion across the thin capillary walls into the extracellular fluid that bathes cells. This interstitial fluid is the immediate environment for cells, so diffusion from capillaries delivers small, soluble nutrients like glucose and amino acids to the space outside cells. From there, those nutrients cross the cell membrane into the cytoplasm, typically via transport proteins or by diffusion, depending on the molecule. Engulfing nutrients by phagocytosis isn’t the normal way most nutrients enter cells, and the cell’s interior (cytoplasm) doesn’t actively pull nutrients into the cell by itself. Digestion or breakdown of nutrients happens earlier in the digestive process or within lysosomes, not as the primary step of absorbing nutrients from blood into tissues.

Nutrients move from the blood into surrounding tissue fluid by diffusion across the thin capillary walls into the extracellular fluid that bathes cells. This interstitial fluid is the immediate environment for cells, so diffusion from capillaries delivers small, soluble nutrients like glucose and amino acids to the space outside cells. From there, those nutrients cross the cell membrane into the cytoplasm, typically via transport proteins or by diffusion, depending on the molecule.

Engulfing nutrients by phagocytosis isn’t the normal way most nutrients enter cells, and the cell’s interior (cytoplasm) doesn’t actively pull nutrients into the cell by itself. Digestion or breakdown of nutrients happens earlier in the digestive process or within lysosomes, not as the primary step of absorbing nutrients from blood into tissues.