Diffusion Coefficient of Oxygen through Tissues

THE measurement of the diffusion coefficient of oxygen through actively respiring tissue is of considerable interest but presents some practical difficulty. From the work of Krogh in 1918 until the present time, a very wide range of values for oxygen diffusion coefficients has been reported1–5 ranging from 1.1 × 10−4 to 4 × 10−8 cm2 sec−1. Because of this very wide range of reported values we decided to measure this value again by a technique essentially similar to that described by Longmuir5, but with the difference that the measurements were made on one slice of tissue at a time without the intrusion of “edge” effects.