Human SP-A and a pharmacy-grade porcine lung surfactant extract can be reconstituted into tubular myelin--a comparative structural study of alveolar surfactants using cryo-transmission electron microscopy.

Cryo-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) is a rather artefact-free method, well suited to study the alveolar surfactant system. A pharmacy grade porcine lung surfactant extract (HL-10) was mixed with human SP-A and Ringer's solution (for calcium ions), and it was shown by cryo-TEM that the tubular myelin (TM) type of structure was reconstituted. These aggregates were associated to liposomal aggregates, and resulted in macroscopic phase-separation. This phase showed a weak birefringence in the polarising microscope, which is characteristic for a liquid-crystalline type of structure. TM from rabbit lung lavage was also examined, and showed the same periodic arrangement of bilayers as alveolar surface layer from freshly cut rabbit lungs deposited directly on the cryo-TEM grids. The distance between the bilayers of TM was 40-50 nm, and an electron dense material, assumed to be SP-A, was sometimes seen to occur periodically along the bilayers, oriented perpendicularly to the tubuli. The results are consistent with the surface-phase model of the alveolar lining.