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The average red blood cell contains 250 million hemoglobin molecules. [7] Hemoglobin contains a globin protein unit with four prosthetic heme groups (hence the name heme-o-globin); each heme is capable of reversibly binding with one gaseous molecule (oxygen, carbon monoxide, cyanide, etc.), [8] therefore a typical red blood cell may carry up to one billion gas molecules.
When carbon dioxide binds to hemoglobin, carbaminohemoglobin is formed, lowering hemoglobin's affinity for oxygen via the Bohr effect. The reaction is formed between a carbon dioxide molecule and an amino residue. [12] In the absence of oxygen, unbound hemoglobin molecules have a greater chance of becoming carbaminohemoglobin.
This releases hydrogen ions from hemoglobin, increases free H + concentration within RBCs, and shifts the equilibrium towards CO 2 and water formation from bicarbonate. The subsequent decrease in intracellular bicarbonate concentration reverses chloride-bicarbonate exchange: bicarbonate moves into the cell in exchange for chloride moving out.
The bicarbonate ion (hydrogencarbonate ion) is an anion with the empirical formula HCO − 3 and a molecular mass of 61.01 daltons; it consists of one central carbon atom surrounded by three oxygen atoms in a trigonal planar arrangement, with a hydrogen atom attached to one of the oxygens.
The bicarbonate buffer system is an acid-base homeostatic mechanism involving the balance of carbonic acid (H 2 CO 3), bicarbonate ion (HCO − 3 ), and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) in order to maintain pH in the blood and duodenum , among other tissues, to support proper metabolic function. [ 1 ]
Using the present results, the fractional contribution of carbamino compounds of hemoglobin to the amount of carbon dioxide exchanged during the respiratory cycle was computed for a given set of physiological conditions in arterial and mixed venous blood. The computed value was found to be 10·5% in adult and 19% in fetal blood. [3]
Histidine residues in hemoglobin can accept protons and act as buffers.Deoxygenated hemoglobin is a better proton acceptor than the oxygenated form. [1]In red blood cells, the enzyme carbonic anhydrase catalyzes the conversion of dissolved carbon dioxide to carbonic acid, which rapidly dissociates to bicarbonate and a free proton:
Hemoglobin has an oxygen-binding capacity of 1.34 mL of O 2 per gram, [6] which increases the total blood oxygen capacity seventy-fold compared to dissolved oxygen in blood plasma alone. [7] The mammalian hemoglobin molecule can bind and transport up to four oxygen molecules. [8] Hemoglobin also transports other gases.