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Published on: April 11, 2025
Developmental and genetic regulation of human surfactant protein B in vivo
Aaron Hamvas1, Hillary B Heins, Susan H Guttentag
1Division of Newborn Medicine, the Edward Mallinckrodt Department of Pediatrics and St. Louis Children's Hospital, St. Louis, Mo. 63110, USA. hamvas@kids.wustl.edu
Background:
Genetic and developmental disruption of surfactant protein B (SP-B) expression causes neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS).
Objectives:
To assess developmental and genetic regulation of SP-B expression in vivo.
Methods:
To evaluate in vivo developmental regulation of SP-B, we used immunoblotting to compare frequency of detection of mature and pro-SP-B peptides in developmentally distinct cohorts: 24 amniotic fluid samples, unfractionated tracheal aspirates from 101 infants >or=34 weeks' gestation with (75) and without (26) neonatal RDS, and 6 nonsmoking adults. To examine genetic regulation, we used univariate and logistic regression analyses to detect associations between common SP-B (SFTPB) genotypes and SP-B peptides in the neonatal RDS cohort.
Results:
We found pro-SP-B peptides in 24/24 amniotic fluid samples and in 100/101 tracheal aspirates from newborn infants but none in bronchoalveolar lavage from normal adults (0/6) (p < 0.001). We detected an association (p = 0.0011) between pro-SP-B peptides (M(r) 40 and 42 kDa) and genotype of a nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphism at genomic position 1580 that regulates amino-terminus glycosylation.
Conclusions:
Pro-SP-B peptides are more common in developmentally less mature humans. Association of genotype at genomic position 1580 with pro-SP-B peptides (M(r) 40 and 42 kDa) suggests genetic regulation of amino terminus glycosylation in vivo.
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