Red blood system in 10–12-year-old children of the Far North

Abstract

Healthy children between the ages of 10 and 12 years (n=699) of the Far North (Taimyr peninsular) and Siberia (Krasnoyarsk city) were examined. The red blood system was investigated relative to the duration of residence in the polar region and the season of the year. The red blood cell (RBC) count and the hemoglobin level in children from the newly arrived population corresponded to the normal age values, and those of the aborigines were at the lower border of the normal value range. The qualitative composition of their red blood was changed—the level of the alkaline-resistant hemoglobin was elevated. In all the children who lived in the polar regions, the mean RBC volume was augmented, along with seasonal dynamics of blood electrolyte composition, changes in phospholipid spectrum of erythrocyte membranes, and certain activation of lipid peroxidation reactions. The oxygen-binding capacity of blood was changed in children from the polar regions, which led to alterations of hemoglobin affinity to O₂ in pO₂ in the direction of its increase in the lungs and decrease in tissues under conditions of existing pO₂. These deviations were the most common (from 5/6 to 2/3) in children during the first five years of their residence in polar regions; afterwards their frequency as compared to the control curve did not exceed 1/2, as in the aborigines.