Lung development in the chick embryo. I. Phosphatidylcholine synthesis in the developing chick lung.

We investigated the relative contribution of the two pathways of phosphatidylcholine (PC) synthesis in lungs from chick embryos of 12 to 20 days of incubation as well as from hatched chicks and adult chickens. Lung "blocks" were incubated for 60 min in vitro in the presence of [3H]methionine and [14C]choline. PC was separated by thin-layer chromatography, and the amount of labeled product was determined by liquid scintillation counting. PC synthesis (expressed as pmoles PC per mg protein per 60 min) by the choline pathway declined from the 12-day value of 40 to a minimum of 8 at day 16 and then rose gradually to a peak of 74 on day 1 posthatching. PC synthesis via the phosphatidylethanolamine pathway also declined from day 12 (54) to day 16 (13) but peaked on day 19 (65) and again on day 1 posthatching (54). Synthetic activities of the two pathways differed significantly (P less than or equal to 0.05) only on days 14, 18, and 19 of incubation. Unlike the mammalian lung, neither pathway seems to predominate throughout incubation or after hatching. The increase in PC synthesis towards the end of incubation correlates with the time of appearance of lamellar bodies in the lung epithelial cells and of surfactant in the airways.