Oxygen Transport and Hemodynamics of Stroma-Free Hemoglobin Solutions

Abstract

In contrast to conventional plasma substitutes properties as carrying and unloading of oxygen are expected from stroma-free hemoglobin solutions. Previous experiments with a 6% stroma-free hemoglobin solution prepared according to BONHARD (2), however, have revealed that this solution exhibits major disadvantages: 1) inadequate intravascular persistence and thus volume retaining capacity and 2) a high affinity of hemoglobin for oxygen impairing the unloading of chemically bound oxygen at the tissue level (9). This series of experiments was designed to find out if the oxygen affinity of stroma-free hemoglobin can be influenced by either modifying the preparation procedure described by BONHARD (2) or on the other hand by introducing pyridoxalphosphate into the hb-molecule as originally described for in vitro conditions by BENESCH et al. (1).