The blood oxygen transport system. A numerical simulation of capillary-tissue respiratory gas exchange

A theoretical model of the process of respiratory gas exchange between capillary and tissue is described, with special reference to the importance of variations in blood properties. The volume of tissue supplied with oxygen from a single vessel, as a function of the blood flowrate (u), hematocrit (h), and 2,3 diphosphoglycerate concentration (DPG), is calculated from a solution to the set of equations governing species distributions in the blood and tissue. The results, which are presented in the form of crossplots of the three blood parameters (u, h, and DPG) at a constant oxygen supply rate, show the possible significance of in vivo variations in the oxygen affinity of hemoglobin as a compensatory mechanism. Of further physiological interest is the sharp increase in venous erythrocyte pH in response to decreases in hematocrit, once the hematocrit is below a certain level. These results, and those relating DPG to hematocrit at constant O2 supply, are consistent with experimental observations of elevated DPG and pH levels in anemic individualts, and the dependence of erythrocyte DPG concentration upon pH.