Canonic hemoglobin-oxygen equilibrium: Reassessing the role of cooperativity
Abstract
Hemoglobin-oxygen equilibrium is normally studied within the grand canonical ensemble, which assumes that each hemoglobin is immersed in a reservoir of unbound oxygen molecules of the plasma. We show that this assumption is incorrect inside the RBC (red blood cell or erythrocyte), where the hemoglobin concentration is larger than the concentration of unbound oxygen in plasma. We suggest a better model, where a single hemoglobin and a few oxygen molecules around it reach a canonical equilibrium at a fixed volume (determined from the RBC structure) and a fixed temperature. The basic models of hemoglobin-oxygen equilibrium -- Pauling's model and Monod-Wyman-Changeux model -- can be reformulated for this canonical situation. They predict cooperative interaction energies, which are significantly lower than predictions of the same models in the grand canonical ensemble. Larger cooperative energies, in particular those predicted by the grand canonical ensemble, lead to instabilities (cascade processes) in oxygen release within the canonical approach. Oxygen-binding fluctuations within this approach are sizably smaller than those in the grand canonical situation. These results suggest that the hopping diffusion of oxygen from one hemoglobin to another may play a role in oxygen diffusion within the RBC.
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BibTeX
@misc{allahverdyan2026canonic,
title = {{Canonic hemoglobin-oxygen equilibrium: Reassessing the role of cooperativity}},
author = {A. E. Allahverdyan and S. G. Gevorkian and A. Harutyunyan and Y. Sh. Mamasakhlisov and V. Stepanyan},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.00824},
eprint = {2611.00824},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.00824},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Canonic hemoglobin-oxygen equilibrium: Reassessing the role of cooperativity
AU - A. E. Allahverdyan
AU - S. G. Gevorkian
AU - A. Harutyunyan
AU - Y. Sh. Mamasakhlisov
AU - V. Stepanyan
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/01
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.00824
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.00824
AB - Hemoglobin-oxygen equilibrium is normally studied within the grand canonical ensemble, which assumes that each hemoglobin is immersed in a reservoir of unbound oxygen molecules of the plasma. We show that this assumption is incorrect inside the RBC (red blood cell or erythrocyte), where the hemoglobin concentration is larger than the concentration of unbound oxygen in plasma. We suggest a better model, where a single hemoglobin and a few oxygen molecules around it reach a canonical equilibrium at a fixed volume (determined from the RBC structure) and a fixed temperature. The basic models of hemoglobin-oxygen equilibrium -- Pauling's model and Monod-Wyman-Changeux model -- can be reformulated for this canonical situation. They predict cooperative interaction energies, which are significantly lower than predictions of the same models in the grand canonical ensemble. Larger cooperative energies, in particular those predicted by the grand canonical ensemble, lead to instabilities (cascade processes) in oxygen release within the canonical approach. Oxygen-binding fluctuations within this approach are sizably smaller than those in the grand canonical situation. These results suggest that the hopping diffusion of oxygen from one hemoglobin to another may play a role in oxygen diffusion within the RBC.
ER -