The effect of elevated dietary cholesterol on pulmonary surfactant function in adolescent mice

It has been established that phospholipids and cholesterol interact in films of pulmonary surfactant (PS). Generally it is thought that phospholipids increase film stability whereas cholesterol increases film fluidity. To study this further, we modified dietary cholesterol in mice which received either standard rodent lacking cholesterol (sd), or high cholesterol (2%) diet (hc) for 1 month. Phospholipid stability was investigated by a capillary surfactometer (CS), which measures airflow resistance and patency. PS was collected by bronchiolar lavage and centrifuged to obtain the surface-active film (SAF). Results showed that the hc-SAF had significantly more cholesterol than sd-SAF. CS analyses at 37 degrees C showed no significance differences in airflow resistance between hc-SAF and sd-SAF. However, at 37 degrees C, sd-SAF showed greater ability to maintain patency compared to hc-SAF, whereas at 42 degrees C hc-SAF showed patency ability similar to sd-SAF. The results suggested that increased cholesterol in hc-SAF induced less stability in the SAF possibly due to cholesterol's fluidizing effect on phospholipids at physiological temperatures.