Gas Exchange: Oxygen Flashcards
What is the purpose of oxygen in the electron transport chain?
It is part of the energy metabolism process. Oxygen needs to accept electrons from the electron transport chain and be reduced to water.
How is oxygen transported around the body?
The oxygen requirements of the body tissues vary depending on activity. The resting oxygen consumption is 250ml/min.
Oxygen has poor solubility in water. If dissolving oxygen was the only method of transport (assuming all oxygen extracted), we would need to supply tissues with more than 80L/min blood at rest. The typical resting cardiac output is around 5L per min.
Oxygen needs to be bound to haemoglobin to be transported.
How is oxygen carried in the bloodstream?
A chemical reaction is needed between oxygen and Hb to transport more oxygen per litre of blood. Many substances will react chemically with oxygen so getting oxygen into the blood is not difficult. Extracting enough oxygen at the tissues is more difficult. This requires a reaction which is rapidly reversible and can respond to a wide range of demands.
Why is haemoglobin used for oxygen transport?
Hb is reversible and responsive and oxygen binds to, then comes off in an area when oxygen is needed. Hb is protein with a haem group attached to it.
Why is haemoglobin used for oxygen transport?
Hb is reversible and responsive and oxygen binds to, then comes off in an area when oxygen is needed. Hb is protein with a haem group attached to it.
What is haem?
What is haemoglobin?
What are the 2 states that haemoglobin can exist in?
What happens when the partial pressure of oxygen is low?
What happens once oxygen has bound to one haem group?
What is the oxygen dissociation curve?
How is saturation reached?
What can the oxygen dissociation curve show?
How is the sigmoid dissociation curve created?
What are the anchor points of the dissociation curve?
