The pulmonary surfactant status in lung immaturity
Birkun, A.A.; Zagorul'ko, A.K.; Fat, L.F.; Kobozev, G.V.; Safronova, L.G.
Arkhiv Patologii 52(2): 10-14
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 0004-1955 PMID: 2353893 Document Number: 350711
Combined study of lungs of 85 foetuses and newborns of various gestational age and 8 newborns dying during the first month of life showed the lung surfactant (LS) system to develop in parallel with formation of respiratory parts and lung capillary network. The level of the LS surface activity increases with the increase of the duration of pregnancy and is determined by the maturation degree of the type II alveolocytes. Changes of the surface activity of the lung extract surface-active fraction in the process of lung maturation correlate with the fractional phospholipid distribution. Morphofunctional immaturity of lungs is characterized, besides histological features, by the ultrastructural immaturity of the type II alveolocytes and biochemical immaturity of LS.