The Physiology of Oxygenation

Today we're going to talk about the physiology of oxygenation primarily, maybe some other stuff thrown in there. And why don't you just give people a little recap of what actually happens in terms of the oxygen cascade from the lungs down to the mitochondria? Okay. The partial pressure of oxygen in the mitochondria ends up being quite low. It's something like 5 millimeters of mercury. If it gets anywhere below one or two, typically it's a Pascal point beyond which enteroag metabolism then begins to take place. That's not mandatory. A lot of organisms have a hugely increased tolerance for hypoxia.