HAEMOGLOBIN

Haemoglobin

Haemoglobin

Introduction

Haemoglobin is one of the two oxygen binding proteins found in vertebrates. It's function is to carry oxygen in the blood from the lungs to other tissues in the body, in order to supply the cells with the oxygen required by them for oxidative phosphorylation of foodstuffs. Haemoglobin is found in the blood within the erythrocytes (Lewis SM, Emmanuel J, 2001). These cells essentially act as a sack for carrying haemoglobin, since mature erythrocytes lack any internal organelles (nucleus, mitochondria, etc). The other oxygen binding protein found in vertebrates is myoglobin, which stores the oxygen in the tissues of the ...