Journal of Applied Physiology, Vol 42, Issue 5 673-678, Copyright © 1977 by American Physiological Society
Hematology, viscosity, and respiratory functions of whole blood of the lesser mouse deer, Tragulus javanicus
G. K. Snyder and W. W. Weathers
Blood samples from the lesser mouse deer were examined for hematology,
viscosity, oxygen dissociation curve, and magnitude of the Bohr effect. Red
corpuscle dimensions, determined under oil immersion with an ocular
micrometer, averaged 2.2 micron while the cell counts averaged 53
million/micronl blood, and the packed cell volume averaged 31.2%. Blood
hemoglobin concentration averaged 11.2 g/100 ml and the calculated mean
cell hemoglobin concentration was 38 g/100 ml. The relative viscosity of
the mouse deer plasma was 1.97 and increased in a nonlinear manner with
hematocrit to 100 at 80% packed cell volume. Oxygen-hemoglobin equilibrium
curves, determined with a mixing technique at 37 degrees C and 10, 36 and
71 Torr PCO2, have the same configuration observed in blood from mammals in
general. The P50 of the mouse deer blood at pH = 7.40 is 34 Torr and the
Bohr effect (deltalog P50/deltapH) is -0.483. The mouse deer have blood
hematocrits which are well below the hematocrits observed in mammals with
larger erythrocytes, but similar to the blood hematocrits observed in other
mammals with small erythrocytes. We suggest that the low hematocrit is an
adaptation which circumvents the hemodynamic problems associated with a
high blood viscosity and that, in the mouse deer, the expected
concomitantly low total blood hemoglobin concentration is compensated by a
higher than average mean cell hemoglobin concentration.
