ON THE VELOCITY OF OXYGEN DISSOCIATION OF HUMAN HEMOGLOBIN AND RED CELL

Abstract

The deoxygenation velocities of Hb solution and the red cell suspension have been measured at 37°C by mixing the oxygenated Hb and red cells with an O₂ free solution.
The dissociation of O₂Hb in hemolysed solution occurred very fast and the half-time was within 5 msec. Moreover, it was clarified that the rate of change in SO₂ of Hb solution obeyed the following formula,
dS/dt=63.4 (S-S_m) ^1.6,
where S_m is the SO₂ corresponding to PO₂ of the surrounding medium.
In the red cell suspension, the reaction proceeded comparatively slowly and the half-times were ranged from 35 to 65 msec. The rate of SO₂ change was expressed by use of the velocity factor, F_c', as follows:
dS/dt=F_c'(P_c-P_m)/0.4×10^-2,
where P_c and P_m are the PO₂ in the red cell and the medium respectively. F_c' seemed to be fairly constant and it did not deviate out of the range of 0.02 to0.03 sec^-1 · EmmHg^-1.