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Hemoglobin

Hemoglobin is an iron-containing protein found in red blood cells that transports oxygen from the lungs to tissues throughout the body, and transports carbon dioxide from tissues back to the lungs. It makes up 97% of red blood cells' dry content and 35% of their total content. Hemoglobin can bind up to four oxygen molecules, greatly increasing the blood's oxygen carrying capacity compared to dissolved oxygen alone. In addition to oxygen and carbon dioxide transport, hemoglobin also carries the regulatory molecule nitric oxide. Variants of hemoglobin exist in other cells and organisms where they may transport or regulate other gases and molecules.

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Julie Anne Valiente Ponce
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29 views

Hemoglobin

Hemoglobin is an iron-containing protein found in red blood cells that transports oxygen from the lungs to tissues throughout the body, and transports carbon dioxide from tissues back to the lungs. It makes up 97% of red blood cells' dry content and 35% of their total content. Hemoglobin can bind up to four oxygen molecules, greatly increasing the blood's oxygen carrying capacity compared to dissolved oxygen alone. In addition to oxygen and carbon dioxide transport, hemoglobin also carries the regulatory molecule nitric oxide. Variants of hemoglobin exist in other cells and organisms where they may transport or regulate other gases and molecules.

Uploaded by

Julie Anne Valiente Ponce
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Hemoglobin (English pronunciation: /hi m

glo b n/; also spelled haemoglobin and

abbreviated Hb or Hgb) is the iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein in the red blood cells of all vertebrates, with the exception of the fish family Channichthyidae, as well as the tissues of some invertebrates. Hemoglobin in the blood is what transports oxygen from the lungs or gills to the rest of the body (i.e. the tissues) where it releases the oxygen for cell use, and collects carbon dioxide to bring it back to the lungs. In mammals, the protein makes up about 97% of the red blood cells' dry content, and around 35% of the total content (including water).
[citation needed]

Hemoglobin has an oxygen binding capacity of 1.34 ml O2 per

gram of hemoglobin, which increases the total blood oxygen capacity seventyfold compared to dissolved oxygen in blood. The mammalian hemoglobin molecule can bind (carry) up to four oxygen molecules. Hemoglobin is involved in the transport of other gases: it carries some of the body's respiratory carbon dioxide (about 10% of the total) as carbaminohemoglobin, in which CO2 is bound to the globin protein. The molecule also carries the important regulatory molecule nitric oxide bound to a globin protein thiol group, releasing it at the same time as oxygen. Hemoglobin is also found outside red blood cells and their progenitor lines. Other cells that contain hemoglobin include the A9 dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra,macrophages, alveolar cells, and mesangial cells in the kidney. In these tissues, hemoglobin has a non-oxygen-carrying function as an antioxidant and a regulator of iron metabolism. Hemoglobin and hemoglobin-like molecules are also found in many invertebrates, fungi, and plants. In these organisms, hemoglobins may carry oxygen, or they may act to transport and regulate other things such as carbon dioxide, nitric oxide, hydrogen sulfide and sulfide. A variant of the molecule, called leghemoglobin, is used to scavenge oxygen, to keep it from poisoning anaerobic systems, such as nitrogen-fixing nodules ofleguminous plants.

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