Radioactive oxygen 15 in study of kinetics of oxygen of respiration

¹ The Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology; and Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri

Among the major components of living matter, oxygen is the only one which has not, heretofore, been extensively traced by means of radioactive techniques. A system for the production and purification of radioactive oxygen 15 has been developed. Oxygen 15 decays with a half-life of 2.25 min by the emission of positrons. The isotope is prepared by irradiation of nitrogen by means of cyclotron-accelerated deuterons. Air tagged with O¹⁵ has been applied to the study in dogs of a) the kinetics of the transfer of oxygen from pulmonary gases to blood, b) the rate of incorporation of oxygen into water during metabolism, c) the rate of exchange of plasma water with tissue water.