Effects of greater erythroid Cl2/HCO23 transporter (band 3) expression on ventilation and gas exchange during exhaustive exercise

Band 3 protein is a Cl-/HCO-3 transporter on the red blood cell (RBC) surface with an important role in CO2 excretion. Greater band 3 expression by roughly 20% is found in people with the GP.Mur blood type. Intriguingly, a disproportional percentage of those with GP.Mur excel in field-and-track sports. Could higher band 3 activity benefit an individual's physical performance? This study explored the impact of GP.Mur/higher band 3 expression on ventilation and gas exchange during exhaustive exercise. We recruited 36 nonsmoking, elite male athletes (36.1% GP.Mur) from top sports universities to perform incremental exhaustive tread-mill cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET). We analyzed CPET data with respect to absolute running time and to individual's %running time and %maximal O2 uptake. We found persistently higher respiratory frequencies and slightly lower tidal volume in GP.Mur athletes, resulting in a slightly larger increase of ventilation as the workload intensified. The expiratory duty cycle (Te/ Ttot) was persistently longer and inspiratory duty cycle (Ti/Ttot) was persistently shorter for GP.Mur subjects throughout the run. Consequently, end-tidal pressure of carbon dioxide (PETCO2 , a surrogate marker for alveolar and arterial CO2 tension-PACO2 and PaCO2) was lower in the GP.Mur athletes during the early stages of exercise. In conclusion, athletes with GP.Mur and higher band 3 expression hyperventilate more during exercise in a pattern that uses a greater fraction of time for expiration than inspiration to increase the rate of CO2 excretion than increased tidal volume. This greater ventilation response reduced PCO2 and may help to extend exercise capacity in high-level sports.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Higher expression of the Cl-/HCO-3 transporter band 3 anion exchanger-1 (AE1) on the red blood cell membrane, as in people with the GP.Mur blood type, increases the rate of CO2 excretion during exercise.