Acute respiratory distress syndrome is a pulmonary disease with a mortality rate of ∼40% and 75,000 deaths annually in the United States. Mechanical ventilation restores airway patency and gas transport but leads to ventilator-induced lung injury. Furthermore, surfactant replacement therapy is ineffective due to surfactant delivery difficulties and deactivation by vascular proteins leaking into...

In children with malignancies and immunosuppression, significant morbidity and mortality result from respiratory complications. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether or not this is associated with altered surfactant components or functions. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from 24 children with malignancies, immunosuppression, pulmonary infiltrates and fever unresponsive to empiri...

Reperfusion injury is the major cause of early morbidity and mortality after lung transplantation. This complication has been experimentally linked to dysfunction of pulmonary surfactant. Therefore, the hypothesis that reperfusion injury might be preventable by exogenous surfactant treatment was tested. Left lungs of minipigs were exposed to 120 min of ischaemia, and the lungs were then reperfu...

BACKGROUND Natural surfactant combined with beclomethasone decreases pulmonary oxidative stress in preterm lambs with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). OBJECTIVES To test the hypothesis that this occurs through a decrease in pulmonary inflammation. METHODS Preterm lambs received 200 mg/kg of natural surfactant or 200 mg/kg of natural surfactant combined with 400 or 800 μg/kg of beclometh...

Pulmonary surfactant is required for lung function at birth and throughout postnatal life. Defects in the surfactant system are associated with common pulmonary disorders including neonatal respiratory distress syndrome and acute respiratory distress syndrome in children and adults. Lipogenesis is essential for the synthesis of pulmonary surfactant by type II epithelial cells lining the alveoli...

Respiratory failure secondary to surfactant deficiency is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in preterm infants. Surfactant therapy substantially reduces mortality and respiratory morbidity for this population. Secondary surfactant deficiency also contributes to acute respiratory morbidity in late-preterm and term neonates with meconium aspiration syndrome, pneumonia/sepsis, and perhaps p...

Respiratory failure secondary to surfactant deficiency is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in preterm infants. Surfactant therapy substantially reduces mortality and respiratory morbidity for this population. Secondary surfactant deficiency also contributes to acute respiratory morbidity in late-preterm and term neonates with meconium aspiration syndrome, pneumonia/sepsis, and perhaps p...

Multiple investigators have undertaken genetic studies in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis populations in attempts to define genetic links to disease in hopes that this would improve understanding of disease pathogenesis and target pathways for therapy. Multiple genes have been evaluated using a candidate gene approach with limited success, with results suggesting a disease modifier effect rather ...

BACKGROUND This section is under preparation and will be included in the next issue. OBJECTIVES To compare the effects of early vs. delayed selective surfactant therapy for newborns intubated for respiratory distress within the first two hours of life. Planned subgroup analyses include separate comparisons for studies utilizing natural surfactant extract and synthetic surfactant. SEARCH STR...

BACKGROUND A decrease in pulmonary surfactant has been suggested to contribute to the lung dysfunction associated with pulmonary inflammation. A number of studies have implicated surfactant clearance as a possible mechanism for altered pool sizes. The objective of the current study was to specifically investigate the mechanisms of surfactant clearance in a rodent model of acute pulmonary inflam...