Betamethasone and adult rat lung surfactant lipids.

Betamethasone (2 mg/kg/day) was administered to adult male rats (n = 15) for one week by daily subcutaneous injections. Thereafter the lungs were lavaged and lamellar bodies (intracellular surfactant storage granules) were isolated from the tissue. Lipid analyses showed two- to fourfold higher amounts of total phospholipids and disaturated phosphatidylcholine compared with the control. These changes were not found in the kidney liver and were not present in plasma membrane, mitochondrial or microsomal fractions from lungs. It was concluded that glucocorticoids plays a significant effect in increasing the lung surfactant lipid pools of adult rat lungs by changing the phospholipid content of lamellar bodies.