Oxygen transport

About 98.5% of the oxygen in a sample of arterial blood in a healthy human breathing air at sea-level pressure is chemically combined with the Hgb. About 1.5% is physically dissolved in the other blood liquids and not connected to Hgb. The hemoglobin molecule is the primary transporter of oxygen in mammals and many other species (for exceptions, see below). Hemoglobin has an oxygen binding capacity of between 1.36 and 1.37 ml O₂ per gram Hemoglobin,which increases the total blood oxygen capacity seventyfold, compared to if oxygen solely was carried by its solubility of 0.03 mL O₂ per liter blood per mmHg partial pressure of oxygen (approximately 100 mmHg in arteries).

With the exception of pulmonary and umbilical arteries and their corresponding veins, arteriescarry oxygenated blood away from the heart and deliver it to the body via arterioles and capillaries, where the oxygen is consumed; afterwards, venules, and veins carry deoxygenated blood back to the heart.

Under normal conditions in adult humans at rest; hemoglobin in blood leaving the lungs is about 98–99% saturated with oxygen, achieving an oxygen delivery of between 950 - 1150 mL/min to the body. In a healthy adult at rest, oxygen consumption is approximately 200 - 250 mL/min,^]and deoxygenated blood returning to the lungs is still approximately 75% (70 to 78%)saturated. Increased oxygen consumption during sustained exercise reduces the oxygen saturation of venous blood, which can reach less than 15% in a trained athlete; although breathing rate and blood flow increase to compensate, oxygen saturation in arterial blood can drop to 95% or less under these conditions. Oxygen saturation this low is considered dangerous in an individual at rest (for instance, during surgery under anesthesia. Sustained hypoxia (oxygenation of less than 90%), is dangerous to health, and severe hypoxia (saturations of less than 30%) may be rapidly fatal.

A fetus, receiving oxygen via the placenta, is exposed to much lower oxygen pressures (about 21% of the level found in an adult's lungs), and, so, fetuses produce another form of hemoglobin with a much higher affinity for oxygen (hemoglobin F) in order to function under these conditions.