The ability of recombinant human Hb (rHb1.1), which is being developed as an oxygen therapeutic, to support metabolism was measured by in vivo ³¹P-NMR surface coil spectroscopy of the rat abdomen in control animals and in animals subjected to isovolemic exchange transfusion to hematocrit of <3% with human serum albumin or 5 g/dl rHb1.1. No significant changes in metabolite levels were observed in control animals for up to 6 h. The albumin-exchange experiments, however, resulted in a more than eightfold increase in P_i and a 50% drop in phosphocreatine and ATP within 40 min. The tissue pH dropped from 7.4 to 6.8. The decrease in high-energy phosphates obeyed Michaelis-Menten kinetics, with a Michaelis-Menten constant of 3% as the hematocrit at which a 50% drop in high-energy phosphates was observed. Exchange transfusion with rHb1.1 resulted in no significant drop in high-energy phosphates, no rise in P_i, and no change in tissue pH from 7.35 ± 0.15 for up to 5 h after exchange. By these criteria, rHb1.1 at a plasma Hb concentration of ~5 g/dl after total exchange transfusion was able to sustain energy metabolism of gut tissue at levels indistinguishable from control rats with a threefold higher total Hb level in erythrocytes.

oxygen therapeutics; high-energy phosphate; gut metabolism; surface coil spectroscopy