Oxygen affinity and electrolyte distribution of human blood: changes induced by propranolol.

Propranolol causes a massive leakage of potassium ions from red cells, which results in an alteration of the Gibbs-Donnan equilibrium across the red cell membrane. According to such a mechanism, the presence of propranolol significantly increases the hydrogen ion activity of the interior of the red cell, causing a decreased oxygen affinity of hemoglobin according to the classical Bohr effect. No release of 2,3-diphosphoglycerate which may be bound to the membrane is thus necessary to explain the effect of propranolol on the oxygen dissociation curve of blood.