Kinetics of the reaction of carbon monoxide and oxygen with T-state hemoglobin in human red blood cell suspensions studied by dye laser flash photolysis.

The reaction kinetics of carbon monoxide and oxygen binding to slow reacting T-state "deoxy" hemoglobin (HbT) in human red blood cell (RBC) suspensions were studied with a 300-ns pulse width dye laser to photodissociate either HbCO or HbO2. The rate constants were determined using only the first 10% of the slow HbT reaction, as at longer times diffusion of ligand away from the RBC seriously affects the kinetics. The rate constants measured are similar to those in solution, indicating that the different physical environment in the RBC has little effect on the Hb kinetics.