Chemical Forums
Specialty Chemistry Forums => Biochemistry and Chemical Biology Forum => Topic started by: Corvettaholic on April 30, 2004, 12:17:31 PM
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I understand how lungs basically work, but what I don't get is how you get oxygen atoms into the blood stream. Figure this sounds biological enough for this particular forum :) What does oxygen bond to in the bloodstream, and how does it get through those little tiny air sacs in the lungs?
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Remember, the air sacs in the lungs are ENORMOUS compared to an oxygen molecule. O2 has no problem moving through the cell walls in the lungs. Once in the blood stream, it bonds to the heme-ring of the molecule hemoglobin which is a part of every single red blood cell in your body. From there it is transported around your body.
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What exactly is the heme-ring? I mean, what atom does the oxygen bond to?
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I think the following link will answer all your questions a bit better than I can. ;D
http://www.isat.jmu.edu/users/klevicca/isat454/hemoglobin_essay.htm (http://www.isat.jmu.edu/users/klevicca/isat454/hemoglobin_essay.htm)
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Hey good stuff! I think scientists have developed hemoglobin on their own? Pretty sure synthetic blood exists, and is going through clinical trials in a couple hospitals. Works pretty well from what I've read. Now how does differing blood types work? Cause I'm A pos, and how does that make me different from someone who is AB neg? Something to do with the 2 globin chains?
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Somewhere I read that O negative can be the universal donor - True?
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Yes that is true. O- does not contain any Rhesus anitbodies which means that it does not matter if the receiver is Rh+ or Rh-. Also, the O blood type does not cause any rejection reactions with any blood type. So O- is indeed the universal donor.
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Hey good stuff! I think scientists have developed hemoglobin on their own? Pretty sure synthetic blood exists, and is going through clinical trials in a couple hospitals. Works pretty well from what I've read. Now how does differing blood types work? Cause I'm A pos, and how does that make me different from someone who is AB neg? Something to do with the 2 globin chains?
MIT already develop a prototype for this back in 2002, part of their nanomedicine research.
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O2 transport is actually very interesting to look at from a chemistry standpoint. When you look at the bonding of oxygen to Fe2+ in the heme using molecular orbitals, you can see why carbon monoxide displaces oxygen and kills people. Also, the release of oxygen and capture of H+ facilitates the release of CO2 from dissolved HCO3 in the blood.
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I'm O+
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there is an iron containing protein called hemoglobin which can bind oxygen and carry it in the blood stream. there also buffer systems which help the transfer of oxygen into the blood stream at the longs while deliver oxygen at the tissue level and grab cafbon dioxide. it is also a function of the partial pressures of oxygen and carbon dioxide at these sites which can affect delivery of oxygen
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It gets into you by diffusion...
:o
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there is an iron containing protein called hemoglobin ..
it's spelled haemoglobin. oxygen is absorbed because of the oxygen concentration gradient. blood in the lungs are lowly-oxygenated and rherefore the haemoglobin readily accepts oxygen. it follows a concentration gradient.
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In America we spell it hemoglobin
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Well spellings are as complicated as Latin ones!
::)
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it's called hemoglobin because of heme (pronounced heem)
it's a protein that contains heme
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The differences in spelling are just due to cultural localities. It's like how cesium is spelled caesium in most european countries, color is splled colour, sulfur is spelled sulphur, etc. etc. They are both correct.
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Yes that is true. O- does not contain any Rhesus anitbodies which means that it does not matter if the receiver is Rh+ or Rh-. Also, the O blood type does not cause any rejection reactions with any blood type. So O- is indeed the universal donor.
Let's see how this posting goes
Blood typing -
everything said sounds pretty good - a little added info
On the surface of cells are proteins that stick out of the membrane. If these proteins are large enough to initiate an immune response, they are commonly called antigens. Antibodies are quartenary proteins that have a region that can attach to specific antigens. Note: these antibodies are specific to the antigen in most cases.
On human RBCs there are lots (LOTS) of antigens, A and B are two types (protein markers). Therefore, a person with type A blood has the A antigen, B has the B antigen, AB has both and O is the absence of those two markers.
On to the whole donor part - - -
lets see if I can make a chart
type antigen antibodies donate to receive from
A A against B A & AB A & O
B B against A B & AB B & O
AB A & B ---- AB AB,A,B,O
O ---- A&B A,B,AB,O O
Hopefully the little chart kind of stays together - on a small scale transfusion - O is an universal donor and AB is the universal receiver. If I would give type A blood to a type B person, the A antibodies they have would stick to the A antigens on the transfused blood and clot it. O type doesn't have the A & B antigens for antibodies to stick to, so they can "universally" donate. AB type doesn't have any A or B antibodies, so they can "universally" receive.
don't worry O, in the US - types O and A are the most common
Now to the rhesus factor - named after the rhesus monkey - found on their blood
If one is + they have the rhesus antigen on their blood and no antibodies
type rH - has no antigen & ***** at first no antibodies ***** I'll come back to that.
so type rH + can receive from type rH + or rH -
type rH - can receive from rH - ****special part***** they can receive a small transfusion from a rH + person once
only once - once that rH- person is exposed to the rH+ antigen they start developing antibodies against it - it usually takes about 10-14 days. The next time they are exposed to rH+ antigen, their body will mount an immune response immediately, clotting the blood.
Where this comes to play? When a rH - mother is preg w/rH + child. The first time, there's no problem. But, at birth the blood of the baby is mixed with that of the mothers. Whamo - next time she is exposed to the rH+ antigen she will mount an immune response. If this happens when she is preg with a rH + fetus, her body will send antibodies across the placenta and abort the fetus. We now have a drug that hospitals give mothers after the first birth that stops this from happening.
In this response, I use "universally" with "" because in large transfusions, more markers besides the A, B and rH are used to type blood. That's why managing a blood bank can be difficult. My hats off to them.
I hope this makes sense - after reading the quality of answers on this site, I wanted to answer this completely.