Pulmonary surfactant, a mixture of lipids and surfactant proteins (SPs), plays an important role in respiration and gas exchange. SP-A, the major SP, exists as an octadecamer that can self-associate to form elongated protein filaments in vitro. We have studied here the association of purified bovine SP-A with lipid vesicle bilayers in vitro with negative staining with uranyl acetate and transmission electron microscopy. Native bovine surfactant was also examined by transmission electron microscopy of thinly sectioned embedded material. Lipid vesicles made from dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine and egg phosphatidylcholine (1:1 wt/wt) generally showed a smooth surface morphology, but some large vesicles showed a corrugated one. On the smooth-surfaced vesicles, SP-As primarily interacted in the form of separate octadecamers or as multidirectional protein networks. On the surfaces of the striated vesicles, SP-As primarily formed regularly spaced unidirectional filaments. The mean spacing between adjacent striations and between adjacent filaments was 49 nm. The striated surfaces were not essential for the formation of filaments but appeared to stabilize them. In native surfactant preparations, SP-A was detected in the dense layers. This latter arrangement of the lipid bilayer-associated SP-As supported the potential relevance of the in vitro structures to the in vivo situation.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1152/ajplung.1999.276.4.L631 | DOI Listing |
In Vitro Cell Dev Biol Anim
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College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi, 830063, China.
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Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261, United States.
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January 2025
Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117551, Singapore.
Phase separation plays a crucial role in many natural and industrial processes, such as the formation of clouds and minerals and the distillation of crude oil. In metals and alloys, phase separation is an important approach often utilized to improve their mechanical strength for use in construction, automobile, and aerospace manufacturing. Despite its importance in many processes, the atomic details of phase separation are largely unknown.
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Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), E-20018 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain.
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Instituto de Química, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 21941-909, Brazil.
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