The primary purpose of this work is to determine if bovine blood can be studied in an immobilized cell bioreactor to determine if a phenol induced oxygen releasing optimum exists. This method of study has the potential to be used to determine what effects xenobiotics have on the oxidative activities of blood.

Three blood fractions containing approximately 21, 44, and 70% red blood cells (RBCs) were immobilized and placed in a recirculating bioreactor. These fractions were exposed injections of 0 ml, 3 ml, or 10 ml amounts of 2000 ppm phenol. The most active fraction was the 21% red cell control, followed by the 44% control which was similar to those of the 70% 3 and 10 ml runs. The 44% 3 ml and the 70% control runs had similar responses. Doses of 20,000 ppm decreased the activity in the 44% runs.

In the whole blood microassay runs, 0.1 ml of 2000 ppm phenol proved to be the optimum. There proved to be a correlation between the oxidative activity of the immobilized blood and the initial and overall slopes in the microassay and recirculation reactors respectively.