Abstract
In Bohr's method 1 , 2 for calculating the oxygen physically dissolved in blood or hemoglobin solution the assumption is made that the solubility of the gas in these fluids is as it is in water. In actual practice nitrogen is determined in blood or hemoglobin solution and from this and the solubility of oxygen in water the amount of oxygen physically dissolved in blood or hemoglobin solution is calculated. Direct determination of the oxygen in suspensions of cells or solutions of hemoglobin which have previously been treated with sodium nitrite, after which treatment it is supposed 3 hemoglobin no longer combines with oxygen, shows that the oxygen is greater than is accounted for in Bohr's method of calculation. Assuming the same physical properties for hemoglobin after treatment with nitrite it would appear that a correction should be made in the usual determinations of oxygen chemically combined with hemoglobin.
Treatment of cells or hemoglobin. (1) Cells: A mixture of 2 volumes of 0.9% sodium chloride solution and 8 volumes of 1.05% sodium nitrite was added to 10 volumes of fresh sheep's blood cells. The mixture was allowed to stand in the cold for half an hour and centrifuged. The cells were washed 3 times with cold van Dyke-Hastings solution 4 containing 0.60 gm. sodium cyanide per litre. (2) Hemoglobin: Cells prepared as above were electrodialyzed and the concentrated hemoglobin solution treated with alumina cream to remove the stroma. Solutions containing 20% hemoglobin could be obtained.
To show that oxidation in the cell preparation was complete, (1) nitrite treated cells were suspended in an equal volume of normal saline mixture saturated with air and 5 cc. were introduced into the van Slyke gas chamber.
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