Pulmonary surfactant apoproteins: a review of protein and genomic structure

In recent years, as the complexity of the surfactant system has become more apparent, investigators with an increasingly diverse set of skills have been attracted to the study of this secretory product of the alveolar epithelium. In addition to advancing our knowledge of the mechanisms underlying the mechanical stability of the lung, recent studies of the surfactant system have also contributed information to less organ-specific biological phenomena such as exocytosis, endocytosis, cell differentiation and lipid-protein interactions in biomembranes. Pulmonary surfactant is not composed of a single class of molecules but, rather, is a collection of interrelated macromolecular lipoprotein complexes that differ in composition, structure, and function. The purpose of this review is to describe the structure of the lung-specific proteins that are associated with the phospholipids of surfactant in the alveolar space. The organization of the genes for the surfactant proteins is outlined and the affects of these proteins on the properties of phospholipid membranes are discussed.