Berlin 2015 – scientific programme
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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik
CPP 20: Membranes and vesicles I (joint session BP, CPP)
CPP 20.8: Talk
Tuesday, March 17, 2015, 11:45–12:00, H 1028
Recognition Force Spectroscopy on Lamellar Body Surfactants collected from Primary Alveolar Cells Type II — •Patrick Paul1, Nina Hobi2,3, Susanne Rappl1, Thomas Haller3, Manfred Frick2, and Kay E. Gottschalk1 — 1Institute of Experimental Physics, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany — 2Institute of General Physiology, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany — 3Department of Physiology and Medical Physics, Division of Respiratory Cell Physiology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
Type II pneumocytes produce and secrete pulmonary surfactant into the alveoli of the lung. Surfactants lower the surface tension between the air-liquid interface within the alveoli. Surfactant consists of multilayers of lipids, mainly phosphatidylcholine, and specific, embedded surfactant proteins (SP-B and SP-C). Physiological studies demonstrated that these proteins play a major role in the stability of the surfactant [1]. However, the precise nature and exact structure of how these proteins are arranged within the lipids is yet unknown.
Hence, we imaged the structure of SP-B and SP-C assembly within a single-lipidlayer surfactant with single molecule force spectroscopy.
Reference: [1] Jesús Pérez-Gil, Structure of pulmonary surfactant membranes and films: The role of proteins and lipid-protein interactions, 2008, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1778, 1676-1695