How many pairs of chromosomes are in a human body cell?

23 pairs. In humans, our cells have 23 pairs of chromosomes and a total of 46 chromosomes. Twenty-two pairs of these chromosomes are known as autosomes, and the last pair of the chromosome is termed sex chromosomes. The autosomes look similar for males and females. For the sex chromosomes, females have two copies of X chromes, while males have one Y and one X chromosome.

We inherit 23 chromosomes from each parent, 22 autosomes and one X chromosomes from mother and 22 autosomes and either X or Y sex chromosomes from father. Option A (46 pairs) is wrong because the human body cell has 23 pairs, and not 46 pairs Option B (12 pairs) is wrong because the human cell does have more than 12 pairs chromosomes. Option D (8 pairs) is wrong because the human body cell has more than eight pairs of chromosomes.