Help! Anyone?
The answer is D.
The walls of both the alveolus and the capillary is
one cell thick. Hence for gaseous exchange to occur the gas has to pass:
i) through the cell membrane of the one cell thick squamous epithelial cell of the
alveoli so that it enters the cell.
ii) through the cell membrane of the same cell but in the opposite direction. The gas now leaves the cell, in other words it gets out of the alveoli.
iii) across the cell membrane of the one cell thick squamous epithelial cell of the
capillary such that the gas enters the cell.
iv) across the cell membrane of the same cell but in opposite direction to get out of the cell and into the blood vessel.
v) lastly the gas needs to go through the cell membrane of the red blood cell for transport.
So in all, the gas has to pass across
5 cell membranes.
See the picture attached so that you may understand it better.