ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the influential factors of solubility of oxygen or oxygen transfer in aqueous biomedia may be classified under physical factors, chemical factors, and biological factors. The influence of different sugars like glucose on oxygen diffusion coefficients in aqueous solutions has been reported. When it occurs above blood pH 6.5, it is termed the alkaline Bohr effect. In invitro absence of chemicals other than buffers, a strict thermodynamic relationship between O2 affinity and proton activity has been demonstrated. The oxygen transport characteristic of blood is defined by “oxygenation capacity” and Hb oxygen affinity. The former term refers to the amount of oxygen binding to active Hb present. In medical practice, during surgery and for clinical purposes, the property of this important biomedium plays a great role in terms of its oxygen-carrying capacity in the circulatory system.
