Library · Disease
Carbon monoxide poisoning
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Carbon monoxide poisoning is injury to cells from hypoxia and ischemia, that is, from a lack of oxygen and blood flow. Carbon monoxide is a gas released when something burns incompletely, and our senses can barely detect it.
In the blood, oxygen travels bound to hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells. Picture hemoglobin as a delivery truck with spots for loading oxygen. Carbon monoxide takes the spots meant for oxygen. It binds to hemoglobin with much greater affinity than oxygen, meaning it holds on much more strongly. When it binds, it forms carboxyhemoglobin, and the truck can carry less oxygen. The cells are left hypoxic.
On top of that, carboxyhemoglobin makes the hemoglobin that is still free hold on more tightly to the oxygen it carries and release less of it to the tissues: the truck arrives, but it unloads less. Carbon monoxide also inhibits, or slows down, mitochondrial respiration, the process by which mitochondria, small structures inside the cell, use oxygen to produce energy.
In brief
Carbon monoxide poisoning is hypoxic-ischemic cell injury caused by carboxyhemoglobin; the gas comes from incomplete combustion and is nearly undetectable by the senses.
It binds hemoglobin with far greater affinity than oxygen, forming carboxyhemoglobin and reducing hemoglobin's oxygen-carrying capacity, which leaves cells hypoxic.
Carbon monoxide takes the spots meant for oxygen.
Carboxyhemoglobin also makes the remaining free hemoglobin hold on to oxygen more tightly and release less of it to tissues, and carbon monoxide inhibits mitochondrial respiration.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingCarbon Monoxide Toxicity, StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
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