Compared with the interstitial fluid that bathes active muscle cells, blood reaching these cells in arterioles has a a. higher PO2. b. higher PCO2. c. greater bicarbonate concentration. d. lower pH.

Question

Accepted Answer

Welcome back. Here's our next problem. Blood entering into the pulmonary capillaries by the pulmonary arterial as a blank in comparison to alvalade air. So let's just recall. So we have the picture in our mind here. That's the pulmonary capillaries. We imagine our little blood vessel here, the tiny capillary um this is carrying deoxygenated blood and it's coming along next to this little al valor air sac. So here's our Alvin ally. It's an air sac. So we've got air in here with a certain p. c. 0. 2. That would be a measure of how much the partial pressure of CO. Two in that air and next to it adjoining it so it can diffuse into the algae layer, vice versa. The deoxygenated blood has its own PCO two measure of how much CO two is dissolved in it. So as we imagine what needs to happen here and recall from our content videos, the deoxygenated blood needs to get rid of its carbon dioxide so it can take in oxygen and become oxygenated. Well how do we get the carbon dioxide to diffuse across the membrane into the air? Well, you need to see a higher PCO two on this side versus in the other villa ara sack. So let's look at our choices and see if we have that as an option. So we're saying the blood first has a blank in comparison to air. So the blood has to have higher PCO two than the air. And Choice A. Is higher PCO two. So Choice A. Is gonna be our answer. But to be thorough we'll just look through other choices. Choice B. Was lower PCO two. That would not be the choice. If the blood level was lower that carbon dioxide would not diffuse out. Choice C. Higher P. 02. So higher oxygen content. Well, this is deoxygenated blood. It's not does not have a higher oxygen content than the air in the L. A. So we're going to eliminate that and finally D. Similar PCO two. Well, if they were similar, there wouldn't be a movement across the membrane and we need that so the lungs can breathe out the C. 02. So D. Is not the correct answer. Our answer here is a higher PCO two and then the blood than in the alvalade. Air. Thanks for watching. See you next time.

Compared with the interstitial fluid that bathes active muscle cells, blood reaching these cells in arterioles has a a. higher PO2. b. higher PCO2. c. greater bicarbonate concentration. d. lower pH.

Verified Solution

Key Concepts

Partial Pressure of Gases

Bicarbonate Buffer System

Acid-Base Balance