Sepsis is the most common factor leading to the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and is associated with the highest mortality rate. It has been suggested that the pulmonary surfactant system is altered and contributes to the lung dysfunction associated with ARDS. The objective of this study was to characterize the lung injury, specifically the endogenous surfactant system in septic ad...

Depletion of alveolar macrophages (AM) leads to an increase in endogenous surfactant that lasts several days beyond the repletion of AM. Furthermore, impairment to the endogenous pulmonary surfactant system contributes to ventilation-induced lung injury. The objective of the current study was to determine whether increased endogenous surfactant pools induced via AM depletion was protective agai...

Lung surfactant is a complex mixture of phospholipids and four surfactant-associated proteins (SP-A, SP-B, SP-C and SP-D). Its major function in the lung alveolus is to reduce surface tension at the air-water interface in the terminal airways by the formation of a surface-active film enriched in surfactant lipids, hence preventing cellular collapse during respiration. Surfactant therapy using b...

The actions of hormones on growth, cellular proliferation, and on synthetic rates of the major surfactant phospholipids, phosphatidylcholine (PC) and disaturated PC (DSPC), were studied in the lung of the chick embryo. Particular emphasis was placed on the effects of hypophysectomy, pituitary transplantation, and treatment with corticosterone (CORT). One study was concerned with hydrocortisone ...

The pulsating bubble surfactometer (PBS) is often used for in vitro characterization of exogenous lung surfactant replacements and lung surfactant components. However, the commercially available PBS is not able to dynamically track bubble size and shape. The PBS therefore does not account for bubble growth or elliptical bubble shape that frequently occur during device use. More importantly, the...

The surfactant lining the walls of the alveoli in the lungs increases pulmonary compliance and prevents collapse of the lung at the end of expiration. In premature born infants, surfactant deficiency causes problems, and lung surfactant replacements are instilled to facilitate breathing. These pulmonary surfactants, which form complex structured fluid-fluid interfaces, need to spread with great...

Pneumonia is an important cause of respiratory failure, and is associated with increased alveolar permeability leading to pulmonary oedema, haemorrhage and atelectasis [1, 2]. The pathophysiological changes in pneumonia include hypoxaemia, decreased functional residual capacity (fRC), decreased total lung capacity (TLC), decreased lung compliance, and a diminished surfactant system [3-5]. As ea...

The primary goal of this study was to investigate the effects of glucose infusion on surfactant phosphatidylcholine (PC) metabolic kinetics in the lungs. A new stable isotope tracer model was used in which [1,2-(13)C(2)]acetate and uniformly labeled [U-(13)C(16)]palmitate were infused in 12 normal overnight-fasted pigs to quantify lung surfactant kinetics with or without glucose infusion (24 mg...

Surfactant protein-A (SP-A) isolated from cow surfactant was added to organic solvent extracts of natural bovine surfactant or of Survanta (Abbott Laboratories), and dynamic compliances and pressure-volume curves were measured in rabbits with a gestational age of 27 days. Organic solvent extracts of natural surfactant and Survanta significantly improved dynamic compliances and lung volumes comp...

UNLABELLED The alteration of 99mTc-labeled diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) transalveolar clearance in an initial phase of radiation lung injury was experimentally investigated. METHODS Fourteen dogs were irradiated to the hemithorax with a single dose of 20 Gy. A DTPA radioaerosol study was performed before irradiation and on day 12 after irradiation. On day 14, the DTPA study was r...