Christmas is becoming near and a well known Christmas song (Santa Claus is Coming to Town) was adapted by Dr. Ahern (www.davincipress.com/ metabmelodies.html) to describe the way hemoglobin works.
Hemoglobin's Moving Around
Oh isn't it great
What proteins can do
Especially ones that bind to O
Hemoglobin's moving around
Inside of the lungs
It picks up the baitAnd changes itself from T to R state
Hemoglobin's moving around
The proto-porphyrin system
Its iron makes such a sceneArising when an O binds
Pulling up on histidine
The binding occurs
Cooperatively
Thanks to changes qua-ter-nar-y
Hemoglobin's moving around
It exits the lungs
Engorged with O
In search of a working body tissue
Hemoglobin's moving aroundThe proton concentration
Is high and has a role
Between the alpha betas
It finds imidazole
To empty their loads
The globins decree"We need to bind 2,3BPG"
Hemoglobin's moving around
The stage is thus set
For grabbing a few
Cellular dumps of CO
Hemoglobin's moving around
And then inside the lungs it
Discovers ox-y-gen
And dumps the CO off
To start all o'er agin
So see how this works
You better expect
To have to describe the Bohr effect
Hemoglobin's moving around
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