Assessment of elastin maturation by radioimmunoassay of desmosine in the developing human lung.

Desmosine has been quantitated in the normally grown fetal and early infant lung by radioimmunoassay. Desmosine could first be detected at 22 weeks gestation: the concentration of desmosine expressed per milligram lung DNA increased in approximately linear form up to about 55 weeks postconceptional age. The concentration in peripheral lung was approximately half that in whole lung homogenates. Lungs of infants dying with acute HMD and lungs of growth retarded infants showed no significant differences from the normals, although there was a tendency for higher desmosine concentrations in prematurely born growth retarded infants.