Pulmonary Surfactant – A Mighty Thin Film (2023) Fred Possmayer

Description

A thorough review examining pulmonary surfactant’s critical role in lung function. It challenges the conventional model (compression-driven squeeze-out) for maintaining low surface tension and proposes an alternative model: the formation of a saturated-lipid-enriched film shortly after birth via an adsorption-driven sorting process. The review examines biophysical evidence and tests the new model against physiological evidence related to neonatal and adult lung pathology, including Neonatal Respiratory Distress Syndrome and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.