Lipid peroxidation and pulmonary hyaline membranes of the newborn: a histochemical, fluorescent microscopic and ultrastructural study

Representative portions of lung from 17 newborn infants with hyaline membrane disease were studied. The consistent findings in the hyaline membranes of Schiff's positivity requiring periodic acid pretreatment, their autofluorescence between 350 and 400 nm, and the granular ultrastructure of the membrane matrix provided morphologic evidence for lipid peroxidation's having occurred in association with the genesis of pulmonary hyaline membranes of the newborn.