Rôle of surfactant in peripheral transport mechanisms.

It has been demonstrated that compression and expansion of a monomolecular film lead to a unidirectional transport of particles which are present on this film. Using the same model we could demonstrate that Broncho-Alveolar Lavage fluids from healthy rats also produce a transport of particles in the direction of the compression phase and that lavage fluids from SO2 exposed rats show impaired and even reversed transport properties. In parallel there is a change of the phospholipid pattern in lavage fluid from SO2 exposed animals. The relevance of these observations is discussed for physiological and pathophysiological situations in the lung periphery.