A variety of substances including human meconium have been found to affect adversely the surface tension-lowering activity of pulmonary surfactants, and this effect may be important in the pathogenesis of a number of human diseases. To find whether inactivation of surfactant could be prevented or reduced by nonionic polymers, we added dextrans, polyethylene glycols (PEGs), or polyvinylpyrrolido...

If pulmonary surfactant develops a dysfunction, its ability to maintain patency of narrow conducting airways diminishes, which is likely to cause an increased airway resistance. We hypothesized that antigen challenge will cause inflammation in the conducting airways and that this will cause a surfactant dysfunction. Twenty atopic patients underwent bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) 5 min and 48 h af...

Idiopathic pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) is a rare lung disease characterized by accumulation of surfactant. Surfactant synthesis and secretion are restricted to epithelial type 2 (T2) pneumocytes (also called T2 cells). Clearance of surfactant is dependent upon T2 cells and macrophages. ABCG1 is highly expressed in both T2 cells and macrophages. ABCG1-deficient mice accumulate surfactan...

Commercial surfactant products derived from animal lungs are used for the treatment of respiratory diseases in premature neonates. These products contain lipids and the hydrophobic surfactant proteins B and C, which help to lower the surface tension in the lungs. Surfactant products are less effective when pulmonary diseases involve inflammatory complications because two hydrophilic surfactant ...

Surfactant dysfunction was studied in C57BL/6 (B6), B6.SP-A(-/-), and B6.iNOS(-/-) mice with pulmonary mycoplasma infection (10(7) colony-forming units). Cell-free bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) from uninfected B6.SP-A(-/-) versus B6 mice had a reduced content of very large aggregates (VLA) and an increase in intermediate large aggregates (ILA), with no difference in total large aggregates (LA = ...

Reed, Jacquelyn A., Machiko Ikegami, Eli R. Cianciolo, Wei Lu, Patricia S. Cho, William Hull, Alan H. Jobe, and JeffreyA. Whitsett. Aerosolized GM-CSF ameliorates pulmonary alveolar proteinosis in GM-CSF-deficient mice. Am. J. Physiol. 276 (Lung Cell. Mol. Physiol. 20): L556–L563, 1999.—Surfactant proteins and phospholipids accumulate in the alveolar spaces and lung tissues of mice deficient in...

The structure of a novel molecularly ordered two-dimensional (2D) silicate framework in a surfactant-templated mesophase has been established by using a combination of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and quantum chemical and empirical force-field modeling. These materials are unusual in their combination of headgroup-directed 2D crystalline framewor...

Pulmonary surfactant, a lipoprotein complex, maintains alveolar integrity and plays an important role in lung host defense, and control of inflammation. Altered inflammatory processes and surfactant dysfunction are well described events that occur in patients with acute or chronic lung disease that can develop secondary to a variety of insults. Genetic variants of surfactant proteins, including...

Lung surfactant is the surface-active agent comprised of phospholipids and proteins that lines pulmonary alveoli. Surfactant stabilizes the alveolar volume by reducing surface tension. Previously, we identified a lysosomal phospholipase A2, termed LPLA2, with specificity toward phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine. The phospholipase is localized to lysosomes, is calcium-independent,...

Genetic abnormalities of pulmonary surfactant were identified by DNA sequence analysis in 14 (12 full-term, 2 preterm) of 17 newborn infants with fatal respiratory distress of unknown etiology. Deficiency of adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette protein, member A3 (n = 12) was a more frequent cause of this phenotype than deficiency of surfactant protein B (n = 2).