PNB 2250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Oxygen Toxicity, Bohr Effect, Red Blood Cell
14 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Fundamental problem: how to get gas from lungs to gill to all cells in the body, process is limited by fick"s law of diffusion. Diffusion is inherently slow over cm distance. 12 milliseconds to cross through an erythrocyte: body cannot make the lungs so big that al cells are nearby, needs a fluid-based material to transport gas. No pumps: large animals need help. Cells are far away from oxygen sources. A physical delivery problem: circulatory systems. Gas transport: stays as a gas when transported in body. A small part henry"s law: gas is attached to proteins. This is a huge advantage because they have enormous capacity: gas can be converted into something else to be transported. Gas combined with proteins: as life evolved, oxygen began to form in the atmosphere. Oxygen is acutely toxic to anaerobic life. Development of proteins to reduce oxygen toxicity by electron reduction. Uses metals such as iron (fe) and copper (cu)
