[Respiratory function of the blood in the cat in hyperoxia]

The influence of isobaric hyperoxia (99% O2, 760 mm Hg, 3 hours a day for 2 weeks) on the respiratory function of the mongrel adult cats blood was investigated. An increase of the reticulocyte count (by 170%), and a fall of methemoglobin concentration in the blood (by 33%), and a decrease of the affinity of cat hemoglobin oxygen affinity (by 13%)8 and of the cooperation effect of Hill's constant (by 16%) were observed. Dialysis of hemoglobin solutions eliminated the difference in the hemoglobin oxygen affinity of control and experimental animals. The number of hemoglobin fractions and their mobility was found to be unchanged (according to the agar electrophoresis method). A conclusion was drawn that the cat erythrocytes reaction to hyperoxia was a typical autoregulation; on its basis hemoglobin acquired a lesser oxygen affinity under conditions of an excess of this gas.