Osmosis helps biological cells maintain their structure. Cell membranes are semipermeable and allow water, small molecules, and hydrated ions to pass, while blocking the passage of biopolymers synthesized inside the cell. The difference in concentrations of solutes inside and outside the cell gives rise to an osmotic pressure, and water passes into the more concentrated solution in the interior of the cell, carrying small nutrient molecules. The influx of water also keeps the cell swollen, whereas dehydration causes the cell to shrink. These effects are important in everyday medical practice. To maintain the integrity of blood cells, solutions that are injected into the bloodstream for blood transfusions and intravenous feeding must be isotonic with the blood, meaning that they must have the same osmotic pressure as blood. If the injected solution is too dilute, or hypotonic, the flow of solvent into the cells, required to equalize the osmotic pressure, causes the cells to burst and die by a process called haemolysis. If the solution is too concentrated, or hypertonic, equalization of the osmotic pressure requires flow of solvent out of the cells, which shrink and die.
Osmosis also forms the basis of dialysis, a common technique for the removal of impurities from solutions of biological macromolecules and for the study of binding of small molecules to macromolecules, such as an inhibitor to an enzyme, an antibiotic to DNA, and any other instance of cooperation or inhibition by small molecules attaching to large ones. In a purification experiment, a solution of macromolecules containing impurities, such as ions or small molecules (including small proteins or nucleic acids), is placed in a bag made of a material that acts as a semipermeable membrane and the filled bag is immersed in a solvent. The membrane permits the passage of the small ions and molecules but not the larger macromolecules, so the former migrate through the membrane, leaving the macromolecules behind. In practice, purification of the sample requires several changes of solvent to coax most of the impurities out of the dialysis bag.