A factor in lingitudinal tissue gradients: red cell carriage.

Abstract

The uptake of oxygen and other substrates from a microcirculatory channel will result in a falling gradient in concentration, from input to output, both within the vascular lumen and within the adjacent tissue. When the materials being extracted are being carried both within the plasma and the red cell, and when the exchange between the red cell and plasma is not instantaneous, a part of the material will be temporarily sequestered within the red cell and will be carried somewhat further along the channel than otherwise would have occurred, before being released to the plasma phase, for removal. The phenomenon of red cell carriage (the trapping and translocation of material within the red cells) will occur, in the case of oxygen, because of both the relatively slow rate of release from oxyhemoglobin and a limiting permeability at the red cell membrane.KeywordsTritiated WaterLabel WaterMontreal General HospitalHepatic Venous BloodOutflow CurveThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.