Phosphate Buffer System
Although the phosphate buffer system is not impor-tant as an
extracellular fluid buffer, it plays a major role in buffering renal tubular
fluid and intracellular fluids.
The main elements of the phosphate buffer system are H2PO4β and HPO4=. When a strong acid such as
HCl is added to a mixture of these two substances, the hydrogen is accepted by
the base HPO4= and con-verted to H2PO4β.
HCl + Na2HPO4 - - > NaH2PO4 + NaCl
The result of this reaction is that the strong acid, HCl, is
replaced by an additional amount of a weak acid, NaH2PO4, and the decrease in pH is
minimized.
When a strong base, such as NaOH, is added to the buffer system,
the OHβ is buffered by the H2PO4β to form additional amounts of HPO4= + H2O.
NaOH + NaH2PO4 - - > Na2HPO4 + H2O
In this case, a strong base, NaOH, is traded for a weak base, NaH2PO4, causing only a slight
increase in pH.
The phosphate buffer system has a pK of 6.8, which is not far from
the normal pH of 7.4 in the body fluids; this allows the system to operate near
its maximum buffering power. However, its concentration in the extracellular
fluid is low, only about 8 per cent of the concentration of the bicarbonate
buffer. Therefore, the total buffering power of the phosphate system in the
extracellular fluid is much less than that of the bicarbonate buffering system.
In contrast to its rather insignificant role as an extra-cellular
buffer, the phosphate buffer is
especiallyimportant in the tubular fluids of the kidneys, for tworeasons:
(1) phosphate usually becomes greatly con-centrated in the tubules, thereby
increasing the buffer-ing power of the phosphate system, and (2) the tubular
fluid usually has a considerably lower pH than the extracellular fluid does,
bringing the operating range of the buffer closer to the pK (6.8) of the
system.
The phosphate buffer system
is also important in buffering intracellular fluid because the concentrationof
phosphate in this fluid is many times that in the extracellular fluid. Also,
the pH of intracellular fluid is lower than that of extracellular fluid and
therefore is usually closer to the pK of the phosphate buffer system compared
with the extracellular fluid.
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