Significance of myoglobin as an oxygen store and oxygen transporter in the intermittently perfused human heart: a model study.

Aims: The mechanisms by which the left ventricular wall escapes anoxia during the systolic phase of low blood perfusion are investigated, especially the role of myoglobin (Mb), which can (i) store oxygen and (ii) facilitate intracellular oxygen transport. The quantitative role of these two Mb functions is studied in the maximally working human heart.

Methods And Results: Because discrimination between Mb functions has not been achieved experimentally, we use a Krogh cylinder model here. At a heart rate of 200 beats/min and a 1:1 ratio of diastole/systole, the systole lasts for 150 ms. The basic model assumption is that, with mobile Mb, the oxygen stored in the end-diastolic left ventricle wall exactly meets the demand during the 150 ms of systolic cessation of blood flow. The coronary blood flow necessary to achieve this agrees with literature data. By considering Mb immobile or setting its concentration to zero, respectively, we find that, depending on Mb concentration, Mb-facilitated O(2) transport maintains O(2) supply to the left ventricle wall during 22-34 of the 150 ms, while Mb storage function accounts for a further 12-17 ms. When Mb is completely absent, anoxia begins to develop after 116-99 ms.

Conclusion: While Mb plays no significant role during diastole, it supplies O(2) to the left ventricular wall for < or = 50 ms of the 150 ms systole, whereas capillary haemoglobin is responsible for approximately 80 ms. Slight increases in haemoglobin concentration, blood flow, or capillary density can compensate the absence of Mb, a finding which agrees well with the observations using Mb knockout mice.