Individual Molecular Species of Phosphatidy1choline from Fetal and Neonatal Lung

Measurement of the complete spectrum of individual molecular species of phosphatidylcholine (PC) can potentially provide greater information about the regulation of surfactant metabolism than measurement of total desaturated PC. It facilitates the measurement of the rates of synthesis and catabolism of different PC species in subcellular fractions of the lung [1] , and can allow a more detailed analysis of surfactant PC remodelling in the type II cell and recycling within the alveolus. In this study we have defined the developmental changes in PC species composition that occur in guinea pig and human lung. These methods have been extended to the analysis of PC species in tracheal aspirate samples from preterm human infants