The name of the fluid that bathes and surrounds the cells and provides them with nutrients is _________.

• A. plasma
• B. cytoplasm
• C. interstitial fluid
• D. lymph

Answer: (C)

The fluid surrounding and bathing the cells, supplying nutrients through diffusion, is interstitial fluid. In tissues, plasma filters out of capillaries and becomes tissue fluid, which fills spaces between cells and carries nutrients to them while taking waste away. This extracellular fluid is distinct from cytoplasm, which is inside cells, and from plasma, which remains within blood vessels. Lymph is fluid that originates from interstitial fluid and travels through lymphatic vessels, but the immediate bath around cells is interstitial fluid.