Ovine pulmonary surfactant induces killing of Pasteurella haemolytica, Escherichia coli, and Klebsiella pneumoniae by normal serum.

Pulmonary surfactant has been shown to play an increasingly important role in bacterial clearance at the alveolar surface in the lung. This study describes a bactericidal mechanism in which ovine pulmonary surfactant induces killing of Pasteurella haemolytica by normal serum. To demonstrate killing, six bacterial species were incubated first with pulmonary surfactant for 60 min at 37 degrees C and then with serum for an additional 60 min at 37 degrees C. P. haemolytica type A1 strains 82-25 and L101, a P. haemolytica type 2 strain, Escherichia coli, and Klebsiella pneumoniae were susceptible and Pasteurella multocida, Serratia marcescens, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were not susceptible to killing by ovine pulmonary surfactant and normal serum. No bacteria incubated with bovine pulmonary surfactant were killed by normal serum. Although the species origin of pulmonary surfactant was selective, the species origin of serum was not. P. haemolytica incubated with ovine pulmonary surfactant was killed by fetal calf serum, gnotobiotic calf serum, pooled normal sheep serum, pooled normal rabbit serum, and pooled guinea pig serum. Ultrastructurally, killed P. haemolytica suspensions contained dead cells and cells distorted with vacuoles between the cytoplasmic membrane and the cytoplasm. The mechanism of killing did not correlate with concentrations of complement or lysozyme or titers of residual antibody in either the pulmonary surfactant or the serum, and killing was reduced by preincubation of surfactant with P. haemolytica lipopolysaccharide. Preliminary characterization of both surfactant and serum implicate a low-molecular-weight proteinaceous component in the surfactant and serum albumin in the serum. This mechanism may help clear certain gram-negative bacteria from the lungs of sheep as a part of the pulmonary innate defense system.