Determining the fluid ordered and disordered phases in a pulmonary surfactant by electron spin resonance technique

Pulmonary surfactant main function is to reduce surface tension at alveolar interface. Two lipids phases coexist in surfactant membranes: a liquid-ordered (Lo) and a liquid-disordered (Ld) phases. This coexistence of phases would be crucial for the surfactant activity. Until now, the proportion of phases was determined qualitatively. We design an electronic spin resonance technique to quantify the lipid fraction in Ld phase. An exogenous pulmonary surfactant (EPS) with or without extra Cho was labeled with 5-doxil stearic acid to estimate the membrane fluidity and with TEMPO to determine the PL in Ld phase. A unique equation was established for the calculation of PL in Ld phase with an error of less than 3%. TEMPO partition coefficient was (0.78 ± 0.03). Cholesterol added to EPS did not modify this coefficient. The equation is valid for different batches of surfactant regardless of the cholesterol content. The proposed method is simple, precise and allows evaluating changes in lateral structure that could affect surfactant biophysical properties.