This presentation describes various aspects of the regulation of tissue oxygenation, including the roles of the circulatory system, respiratory system, and blood, the carrier of oxygen within these components of the cardiorespiratory system. The respiratory system takes oxygen from the atmosphere and transports it by diffusion from the air in the alveoli to the blood flowing through the pulmonary capillaries. The cardiovascular system then moves the oxygenated blood from the heart to the microcirculation of the various organs by convection, where oxygen is released from hemoglobin in the red blood cells and moves to the parenchymal cells of each tissue by diffusion. Oxygen that has diffused into cells is then utilized in the mitochondria to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy currency of all cells. The mitochondria are able to produce ATP until the oxygen tension or PO2 on the cell surface falls to a critical level of about 4–5 mm Hg. Thus, in order to meet the energetic needs of cells, it is important to maintain a continuous supply of oxygen to the mitochondria at or above the critical PO2 . In order to accomplish this desired outcome, the cardiorespiratory system, including the blood, must be capable of regulation to ensure survival of all tissues under a wide range of circumstances. The purpose of this presentation is to provide basic information about the operation and regulation of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, as well as the properties of the blood and parenchymal cells, so that a fundamental understanding of the regulation of tissue oxygenation is achieved.

This presentation describes various aspects of the regulation of tissue oxygenation, including the roles of the circulatory system, respiratory system, and blood, the carrier of oxygen within these components of the cardiorespiratory system. The respiratory system takes oxygen from the atmosphere and transports it by diffusion from the air in the alveoli to the blood flowing through the pulmonary capillaries. The cardiovascular system then moves the oxygenated blood from the heart to the microcirculation of the various organs by convection, where oxygen is released from hemoglobin in the red blood cells and moves to the parenchymal cells of each tissue by diffusion. Oxygen that has diffused into cells is then utilized in the mitochondria to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy currency of all cells. The mitochondria are able to produce ATP until the oxygen tension or PO2 on the cell surface falls to a critical level of about 4-5 mm Hg. Thus, in order to meet the energetic needs of cells, it is important to maintain a continuous supply of oxygen to the mitochondria at or above the critical PO2 . In order to accomplish this desired outcome, the cardiorespiratory system, including the blood, must be capable of regulation to ensure survival of all tissues under a wide range of circumstances. The purpose of this presentation is to provide basic information about the operation and regulation of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, as well as the properties of the blood and parenchymal cells, so that a fundamental understanding of the regulation of tissue oxygenation is achieved.

This book covers the proceedings of the 32nd scientific meeting of the International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue (ISOTT) in Bari, Italy, August 21-26, 2004. It covers all aspects of oxygen delivery to tissue, including blood flow and its regulation as well as oxygen metabolism. Special emphasis is placed on methods of oxygen measurement in living tissue and application of these technologies to understanding physiological and biochemical basis for pathology related to tissue oxygenation. The event hosted was a multidisciplinary meeting designed to bring together experts and students from a range of research fields.

This book covers all aspects of oxygen delivery to tissue, including blood flow and its regulation as well as oxygen metabolism. Special attention will be paid to methods of oxygen measurement in living tissue and application of these technologies to understanding physiological and biochemical basis for pathology related to tissue oxygenation. This book is multidisciplinary and designed to bring together experts and students from a range of research fields including biochemical engineering, physiology, microcirculation, and hematology.

This volume contains refereed manuscripts prepared from presentations made at the 2ih annual meeting of the International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue (ISOTT). The meeting was held in Hanover, NH, USA, at Dartmouth Medical School, the 3rd oldest medical school in the USA. ISOTT attempts to produce high quality pUblications on cutting edge topics relating to oxygen in living systerns. The goal is to allow contributors to contribute original data, as with a main-stream journal article, but also to voice individual opinions and ideas in a more relaxed scientific forum. The meeting brought together an international group of scientists who share a common interest in the measurement and role of oxygen in living systems. The organizers of ISOTT99 made a special effort to bring together people from industry, medicine, and basic sciences in order to improve the links in the chain of discovery through to application. As a result, this volume contains publications on a range of subjects. There are contributions from companies on modifiers of oxygen carrying capacity (allosteric modifiers of hemoglobin and infusible oxygen carriers or blood substitutes); technical reports on oxygen measurement devices including advances in near-infrared spectroscopy and imaging, oxygen electrodes, magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging, and fluorescence based measurements. There are medically related sections on modifying and measuring tumor oxygenation in order to improve therapy, assessment and interpretation of oxygenation in the central nervous system, and general issues relating oxygen to pathological conditions.

Since there are many different tissues and organs in the body, a study of oxygen transport to tissue necessarily involves a great diversity of bodily functions. Furthermore, these tissue functions can be approached from the viewpoint of several disciplines. Even tually, however, all of these approaches must be combined to arrive at a comprehensive picture. This multidisciplinary effort, though imperative, has been implemented slowly because traditional biologi cal science has been largely organ- or discipline oriented. Initia tives to realize an effective international multidisciplinary collab oration have assumed increasing momentum for the past 20 years. These include meetings held in Bad Oeynhausen in 1965 (book in 1968, edited by D. W. Lubbers, U. C. Luft, G. Thews and E. Witzleb), in Nijmegen in 1968 (book in 1969, edited by F. Kreuzer), in Vancouver in 1970 (J. Strauss), and in Dortmund in 1971; this last was in connection with the 25th International Physiological Congress in Munich (book in 1973, edited by M. Kessler, D. F. Bruley, L. C. Clark, Jr. , D. W. Lubbers, I. A. Silver and J. Strauss). This increasing international cooperation called for a more formal organization of these individual initiatives. The credit for taking this decisive step goes to H. I. Bicher and D. F. Bruley from the U. S. A. and D. W. Lubbers and M. Kessler from Germany, who got together in 1972 to plan a large-scale inter national meeting and to organize an international society.

The International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue (ISOTT, www. isott. info) is an interdisciplinary society comprising about 250 members worldwide. Its purpose is to further the understanding of all aspects of the processes involved in the transport of oxygen from the air to its ultimate consumption in the cells of the various organs of the body. The annual meeting brings together scientists, engineers, clinicians and mathematicians in a unique int- national forum for the exchange of information and knowledge, the updating of participants on latest developments and techniques, and the discussion of controversial issues within the field of oxygen transport to tissue. Founded in 1973, the society has been the leading platform for the presentation of many of the technological and conceptual developments within the field both at the meetings themselves and in the proceedings of the society. These have been published first by Plenum Publishing (1973), then by Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers and presently by Springer Publishing, all in the Advances In Expe- mental Medicine and Biology Series. The 36th Annual ISOTT conference was held in Sapporo, Japan during August 3–7, 2008. It was the second occasion that the ISOTT meeting was held in Japan; the first one was held in the same place in 1987 organized by Professor Masaji Mochizuki.