The utility of postmortem lung for RNA studies; variability and correlation of the expression of surfactant proteins in human lung.

Postmortem human lung tissue was evaluated for its utility in studies of the mRNAs for the surfactant proteins. Data obtained from different analytical procedures indicated that surfactant protein mRNAs are quite stable in these tissues with a half-life of 10 to 12 h. These analyses revealed no major regional differences in the mRNA levels for the surfactant protein A (SP-A) and surfactant protein B (SP-B) although small differences were present in the levels for the surfactant protein C (SP-C). Analysis of adult surgical lung specimens indicated that there is greater individual variation in the mRNA levels for SP-A and SP-B compared to SP-C among individuals. Furthermore, in a given individual the level of SP-A mRNA correlated well with that of SP-B, whereas the level of SP-C mRNA did not correlate with either that of SP-A or SP-B.