Surfactant must have two somewhat contradictory characteristics to function effectively. During exhalation, the shrinking alveolar surface area compresses the surfactant film to extremely dense structures that effectively eliminate surface tension. Surfactant must be sufficiently rigid to withstand this compression without collapse from the interface. At the same time, however, surfactant must also be sufficiently fluid that the freshly secreted bilayer vesicles can rapidly fuse with the air-liquid interface to form the surface film. This laboratory's research focuses on the mechanisms by which this process of fusion of the surfactant vesicles with the interface occurs, on the role of surfactant-specific proteins in promoting this process, and on the structural basis of the film's stability during lateral compression.
Neutral lipids induce critical behavior in interfacial monolayers of pulmonary surfactant.
Biochemistry 38, 374-383. Distinct steps in the adsorption of pulmonary surfactant to an air-liquid interface. Rapid compression transforms interfacial monolayers of pulmonary surfactant. Updated April 26, 2001.