Direct Experimental Evidence of a Functionally Active Electron Transport System in Human Blood

Abstract

DESPITE the prevailing interest in the redox potentials of biological systems¹ there still does not appear to exist in the literature a satisfactory experimental demonstration of a functionally active electron transport system in the blood. Published evidence² provides no adequate or conclusive proof since most of the findings can be criticized, among other things, for the failure to keep the temperature of the blood samples within the biological range, and for the crucial omission of ascertaining the reliability and consistency of the readings, for example, through the use, simultaneously, of multiple electrodes. These and other shortcomings have been corrected in our investigations, which lend support to the view that an accurately measurable and reproducible redox potential of a blood sample can indeed be obtained. The following is submitted as an illustration.