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Respiratory Functions of Avian and Mammalian Hemoglobins

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Blood and Tissue Oxygen Carriers

Part of the book series: Advances in Comparative and Environmental Physiology ((COMPARATIVE,volume 13))

Abstract

In birds and mammals hemoglobin (Hb) plays a central role in the delivery of the oxygen that drives aerobic metabolism and in the removal of the carbon dioxide and the hydrogen ions that would otherwise disrupt aerobic metabolism. In large measure, Hb is important because it reversibly binds O2. One important feature of O2 binding is an increased blood-O2 capacity; essentially all of the O2 supplied to tissues in birds and mammals is carried as HbO2. A second important feature of O2 binding is the affinity of Hb for O2 which insures O2 loading in lungs and sets the pressures for O2 release in tissues. A third important feature of O2 binding is cooperativity. O2 binding shows positive cooperativity, linkage of O2 to deoxy Hb increases the affinity of Hb for subsequent O2. Finally, in addition to O2, Hb reversibly binds CO2 and H+ and in so doing transports a significant portion of these metabolic products from their sites of production to lungs and other sites of turnover in the body.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental, Population and Organismic Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309-0334, USA

    G. K. Snyder

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  1. G. K. Snyder
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, 23185, USA

    Charlotte P. Mangum

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© 1992 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Snyder, G.K. (1992). Respiratory Functions of Avian and Mammalian Hemoglobins. In: Mangum, C.P. (eds) Blood and Tissue Oxygen Carriers. Advances in Comparative and Environmental Physiology, vol 13. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76418-9_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76418-9_15

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-76420-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-76418-9

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