Hey Everyone,
So I'm currently and IB student taking IB Sports, Exercise, and Health Sci. We're currently in our Cardiorespiratory Physiology Unit and I have a question (more like an odd thought that came into my head while listening to my teacher) :
So, the heart pumps blood, and the left ventricle sends blood to your systemic circulation while the right ventricle sends blood to your pulmonary circulation. And obviously, the heart has its own cardiac blood supply to enrich its tissues aside from that, but does anyone know if Carbon dioxide or Oxygen diffuse into cardiac tissue when the heart pumps blood? is that possible? Again, it's just a weird thought that popped into my head, but it's been nagging me for a while now.
In addition, because pulmonary veins go to the lungs to re-enrich deoxygenated blood with oxygen, do the membranes around the lungs generally have a lower O2 concentration because of the continuous diffusion of CO2? (This is again branching off of whether diffusion can occur outside of capillaries )
Thanks!