A ntenatal corticosteroids, postnatal surfactant treatment, and new strategies for respiratory care have modified the clinical presentation, lung outcome, and survival of extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants. These changes over the last 10-20 years have resulted in a large population of ELBW survivors that have clinical courses that are quite different from those observed before the genera...

To be effective for cytoplasmic delivery of therapeutics, nanoparticles (NPs) taken up via endocytic pathways must efficiently transport across the cell membrane and subsequently escape from the secondary endosomes. We hypothesized that the biomechanical and thermodynamic interactions of NPs with plasma and endosomal membrane lipids are involved in these processes. Using model plasma and endoso...

The mechanisms by which pulmonary surfactant protein B (SP-B) affects the surface activity of surfactant lipids are unclear. We have studied the peptide/lipid interactions of the amino-terminal amphipathic domain of SP-B by comparing the secondary conformations and surface activities of a family of synthetic peptides based on the native human SP-B sequence, modified by site-specific amino acid ...