Two compartments of equal volume of physiological saline are divided by a membrane permeable only to oxygen.
At 1 AM, equal amounts of oxygen are dissolved into both left and right compartments. At 3 AM, healthy red blood cells are prepared so that they contain no oxygen. At 3:05 AM, these cells are placed into the right compartment.
A. The amount of extracellular oxygen in the right compartment at 4 AM will be less than the total amount of oxygen in the right compartment at 2 AM.
B. The total amount of oxygen in the left compartment at 4 AM will be equivalent to the total amount of oxygen in the left compartment at 2 AM.
C. The total amount of oxygen (extracellular, intracellular bound and intracellular unbound oxygen) in the right compartment at 4 AM will be greater than the total amount of oxygen in the left compartment at 4 AM.