Published ahead of print on October 24, 2003, doi:10.1165/rcmb.2003-0351OC
© 2004 American Thoracic Society DOI: 10.1165/rcmb.2003-0351OC Surfactant in Newborn Compared with Adolescent PigsAdaptation to Neonatal RespirationDepartments of Pediatric Pulmonology and Neonatology, and of Pediatric Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Hannover; Department of Neonatology, Faculty of Medicine, Eberhard-Karls-University, Tübingen, Germany; and Department of Anesthesiology, Erasmus MC-Faculty, Rotterdam, The Netherlands Address correspondence to: Wolfgang Bernhard, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Neonatology, Faculty of Medicine, Eberhard-Karls-University, Calwer Straße 7, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany. E-mail: wolfgang.bernhard{at}med.uni-tuebingen.de Surfactant composition and function differ between vertebrates, depending on pulmonary anatomy and respiratory physiology. Because pulmonary development in pigs is similar to that in humans, we investigated surface tension function, composition of phospholipid molecular species, and concentrations of surfactant protein (SP)-A to -D in term newborn pigs (NP) compared with adolescent pigs (AP), using the pulsating bubble surfactometer, mass spectrometry, high-performance liquid chromatography, and immunoblot techniques (IT). NP was more potent than AP surfactant in reaching minimal surface tension values near zero mN/m. Whereas SP-A and SP-D were comparable, SP-B and SP-C were increased 3- to 4-fold in NP surfactant. Moreover, fluidizing phospholipids such as palmitoylmyristoyl-PC (PC16:0/14:0) and palmitoylpalmitoleoyl-PC (PC16:0/16:1) were increased at the expense of PC16:0/16:0 (32.4 ± 0.6 versus 44.5 ± 3.2%, respectively). Whereas concentrations of total anionic phospholipids were similar in NP and AP surfactant (9.9 ± 0.3 and 12.0 ± 0.3%, respectively), phosphatidylinositol was the predominant anionic phospholipid in NP surfactant. We conclude that, compared with AP, NP surfactant displays better surface tension function under dynamic conditions, which is associated with increased concentrations of SP-B and SP-C, as well as fluidizing phospholipids at the expense of PC16:0/16:0.
Abbreviations: adolescent pigs, AP • bronchoalveolar lavage, BAL • BAL fluid, BALF • electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, ESI-MS • high-performance liquid chromatography, HPLC • newborn pigs, NP • phosphatidylcholine, PC • phosphatidylglycerol, PG • phosphatidylinositol, PI • surfactant protein, SP This article has been cited by other articles:
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