Studies on respiration of muscle in the presence of carbon monoxide

✍ Scribed by Carleton, Blondel H. ;Fenn, W. O.

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1938
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 423 KB
• Volume: 11
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0095-9898
• DOI: 10.1002/jcp.1030110106

✦ Synopsis

This work followed the discovery by Fenn and Cobb ( '32) that amphibian skeletal and heart muscles exhibited a greatly increased respiratory rate in the presence of a mixture of 7970 carbon monoxide and 21% oxygen as compared to the corresponding rate in air. Further evidence was presented to show that this increased respiration was due to the burning of carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide. This increase in respiration in the presence of carbon monoxide may be called for convenience the 'excess respiration' to distinguish it from the ordinary 'air respiration. ' If these two kinds of respiration depend upon the same enzyme system, they should be similarly modified by potassium chloride and pH changes. I n this respect, certain differences and certain similarities are reported in this paper. In addition, some studies were made on a few invertebrate muscles which apparently have no excess respiration in carbon monoxide.

Methods

Respiration was measured with the differential volumeters described by Fenn ( '27). Carbon monoxide was prepared by dropping sulfuric acid on hot formic acid, the gas being passed through an alkaline washing fluid. A more extensive train of purifying solutions used in some experiments did not change the results. As a general procedure, matched muscles were dissected the day before an experiment, and were kept in 91