9400329 Jaron The research proposed in this application is concerned with modeling the steady state and time-varying properties of O2- CO2 coupled transport in the microcirculation. The model developed is a compartmental model representation from the distributed model. Simulations are carried out systematically by applying space-averaging methods to the corresponding distributed models. These simulation results will be compared with experimental results appearing in the literature. The long term goal of this research program is to incorporate the results of this study with previously developed mechanical and hemodynamic models of circulation in order to relate the metabolic and mechanical performance of the system and study their interaction. It is expected that the integration of gas transport and metabolism with the hemodynamic behavior of the system will be an important step toward improving understanding of the control characteristics of the biological system. This research may be important in understanding the normal physiological system, as well as for pathological phenomena involving hypoxia, heteroxia, and gas toxicity. ***
