Isolation & chemical composition of lung surfactant from human amniotic fluid

Lung surfactant was isolated from human amniotic fluid collected at term and studied with reference to the material isolated from human and rabbit lung lavage. The isolated material showed 58 per cent lipid by dry weight, 29 per cent protein and relatively smaller amounts of nucleic acids, sialic acid and hexose. Phosphatidyl choline was the predominant phospholipid species and accounted for 46 per cent of the total lipid by weight, followed by phosphatidyl glycerol (7%) and phosphatidyl ethanolamine (5%). Cholesterol was the major neutral lipid fraction present (10%) and was almost entirely in the free form. Other lipid fractions present in minor quantity were triglycerides, esterified cholesterol, phosphatidyl serine, phosphatidyl inositol and sphingomyelin. The material contained a very high degree of alkaline phosphatase activity, while other enzymes such as acid phosphatase, glucose-6-phosphatase, ATPases, 5'-nucleotidase and beta-N-acetyl glucosaminidase were also present.