Abstract
Although the naturally occurring atmospheric noble gases He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe possess great potential as tracers for studying gas exchange in living beings, no direct analytical technique exists for simultaneously determining the absolute concentrations of these noble gases in body fluids in vivo. In this study, using human blood as an example, the absolute concentrations of all stable atmospheric noble gases were measured simultaneously by combining and adapting two analytical methods recently developed for geochemical research purposes. The partition coefficients determined between blood and air, and between blood plasma and red blood cells, agree with values from the literature. While the noble-gas concentrations in the plasma agree rather well with the expected solubility equilibrium concentrations for air-saturated water, the red blood cells are characterized by a distinct supersaturation pattern, in which the gas excess increases in proportion to the atomic mass of the noble-gas species, indicating adsorption on to the red blood cells. This study shows that the absolute concentrations of noble gases in body fluids can be easily measured using geochemical techniques that rely only on standard materials and equipment, and for which the underlying concepts are already well established in the field of noble-gas geochemistry.
Highlights
The atmospheric noble gases He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe are widely used as tracers to analyze the dynamics of aquatic systems such as lakes, oceans, and groundwaters [1,2]
The analytical techniques used to determine noble-gas solubilities using stable isotopes are degassing [20], gas chromatography (GC) [19,21], and gas chromatography combined with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) [22]
To confirm the accuracy of the methods, for these samples we present the calculated partition coefficients of the noble gases between whole blood and air, and between blood plasma and red blood cells, and compare the values obtained with values from the literature
Summary
The atmospheric noble gases He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe are widely used as tracers to analyze the dynamics of aquatic systems such as lakes, oceans, and groundwaters [1,2]. Using blood as an example, the rates of gas uptake in the lung can be quantified from mass balances determined from the rebreathing of inert test gases These mass balances are used to estimate cardiac output by quantifying the flow of blood through the lungs, using models of the circulation of blood within the body and of the transfer of gases from the alveoli of the lung to the blood [10]. It should be noted that no measurements have yet been made of the in vivo concentrations of noble gases of natural – i.e., atmospheric – origin in human blood, and that all relevant previous experiments have relied on the use of artificial gas tracers
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