What is the function and importance of buffers in the blood?
1 Answer
The body's chemical buffer system consists of three individual buffers out of which the carbonic acid - bicarbonate buffer is considered most important.
Explanation:
Cellular respiration produces carbon dioxide as a waste product. This is hydrolysed into bicarbonate ion in the blood.
While in the blood, this bicarbonate ion serves to neutralise acids introduced in to the blood through other metabolic processes. Bases released in to the blood are neutralised by carbonic acid.
The bicarbonate buffer also plays a significant role in the digestive system. In the stomach and deudenum it neutralises gastric acids and stabilises the intra cellular pH of epithelial cells via the secretion of the bicarbonate ion into the gastric mucosa.
Apart from this , the phosphate buffer system operates in the internal fluids of all cells.
The main function of the protein buffer system is to maintain constant H+ ions.
Without these buffer systems, cellular pH and the pH of fluids outside the cells would fall.
