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Pulmonary surfactant thus greatly reduces surface tension, increasing compliance allowing the lung to inflate much more easily, thereby reducing the work of breathing. It reduces the pressure difference needed to allow the lung to inflate. The lung's compliance, and ventilation decrease when lung tissue becomes diseased and fibrotic. [3]
Lung surfactant (LS) is a surface-active material produced by most air-breathing animals for the purpose of reducing the surface tension of the water layer where gas exchange occurs in the lungs, given that the movements due to inhalation and exhalation may cause damage if there is not enough energy to sustain alveolar structural integrity.
Pulmonary surfactant is produced in the lungs in order to facilitate breathing by increasing total lung capacity, and lung compliance. In respiratory distress syndrome or RDS, surfactant replacement therapy helps patients have normal respiration by using pharmaceutical forms of the surfactants.
Pulmonary surfactant may be isolated from the lungs of cows or pigs or made artificially. [1] [3] [4] Pulmonary surfactant was discovered in the 1950s and a manufactured version was approved for medical use in the United States in 1990. [3] It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. [5]
Surfactant therapy is the medical administration of pulmonary surfactant that is derived from outside of the body. Pulmonary surfactant is a soap-like chemical synthesized by type II alveolar pneumocytes and is of various lipids (80% phospholipids, 5-10% cholesterol, and ~10% surfactant-associated proteins). This biological fluid reduces ...
In molecular biology, Pulmonary surfactant protein D (SP-D) is a protein domain predominantly found in lung surfactant. This protein plays a special role; its primary task is to act as a defence protein against any pathogens that may invade the lung. It also plays a role in lubricating the lung and preventing it from collapse.
It is the precursor of surfactant and its presence (>0.3) in the amniotic fluid of the newborn indicates fetal lung maturity. Approximately 98% of alveolar wall surface area is due to the presence of type I cells, with type II cells producing pulmonary surfactant covering around 2% of the alveolar walls.
Phosphatidylcholine is a major constituent of cell membranes and pulmonary surfactant, and is more commonly found in the exoplasmic or outer leaflet of a cell membrane. It is thought to be transported between membranes within the cell by phosphatidylcholine transfer protein (PCTP). [3]