Oxygen transport to tissue by persistent bubbles: theory and simulations.
Persistent gas bubbles able to traverse capillaries can be prepared from a slowly permeating gas or with a mechanical structure surrounding a gas phase. If they are permeable to gases, such bubbles will carry O2 from the lungs to the tissues via the blood stream. Using a mathematical model based on physical laws, we present simulations of the behavior of bubbles stabilized by a slowly permeating gas (gas X). We show that the bubble persists longer if the tissue and venous blood contain N2 to dilute gas X and slow its outward diffusion. A 6-microns -diam bubble carries 0.11 pl of O2 during the breathing of pure O2, so 4.6 x 10(8) bubbles/ml in the blood will supply a normal arteriovenous difference. In conditions used for hyperbaric O2 therapy, a bubble carries approximately 0.26 pl of O2. Stabilized bubbles have the potential to transport O2 efficiently; they release O2 to tissue at high PO2 and require injection of only small amounts of a foreign substance.
Burkard
M E
ME
Department of Physiology, State University of New York, Buffalo 14214.
Van Liew
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HD
D000388:Air; D000818:Animals; D001692:Biological Transport; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D006931:Hyperbaric Oxygenation; D008433:Mathematics; D008863:Microspheres; D008954:Models, Biological; D010100:Oxygen / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D012119:Respiration
D010100:Oxygen