EFFECTS OF 18,000 FEET SIMULATED ALTITUDE ON THE MYOGLOBIN CONTENT OF DOGS

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
It is well established that the hemoglobin content of the blood increases during exposure to low barometric pressures as occurs in mountains or in low pressure chambers. Hurtado et al. found that dogs indigenous to high mts. also contain larger quantities of myoglobin than dogs living at sea level. These expts. were undertaken to find out if the myoglobin content of muscles increases during discontinuous exposure to simulated altitude. Two expts. were done. In one the myoglobin content of a muscle was detd. in 7 dogs before 6 mos'' intermittent exposure to 18,000 ft. simulated altitude and of the same muscle on the opposite side after the exposures. The other expt. consisted of analyzing the myoglobin contents of 5 other muscles in the exposed dogs and in 6 unexposed dogs. Analysis of the muscles was done by determining the concn. of myoglobin in a quantitatively obtained extract of a known amt. of muscle. Differentiation from Hb \was done by spectrophoto-metric analysis of the carboxyl derivatives at 2 wave-lengths. The Hb content of the blood increased markedly in the dogs which were exposed to altitude, but the myoglobin content decreased slightly. The avg. myoglobin content in the 5 other muscles of the exposed dogs was also less than in the unexposed dogs.

This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit: