“Maintaining proper acid-base balance in the body is crucial to sustaining life. Blood pH is tightly regulated between a pH of 7.35 and 7.45; deviations from these values result in acidosis or alkalosis, respectively. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) provides the body’s most important buffering system and can be quickly regulated by altering respiration. CO₂ is converted to HCO^–₃ and H⁺ by the reaction provided below, which is catalyzed by carbonic anhydrase:

HCO^–₃ + H⁺ ↔ H₂CO₃ ↔ CO₂ + H₂O (H₂CO₃ pKa = 6.1)The pH of a buffered solution can be calculated using the Henderson-Hasselbach equation, which is provided below:
a

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