Surfactant

Surfactant is an English artificial word (surface active agent) and means "surface-active substance". The English term has established itself in German for a special, significant surface-active substance in the lungs. Characteristic phospholipids, neutral lipids (cholesterol esters) and proteins are formed by specialized lung cells (pneumocytes type II) in a ratio of 10:1:1 and are partly absorbed from the blood. They are then stored in granules, the lamellar bodies (=osmiophilic granules), and secreted into the alveoli. According to the Young-Laplace equation, surface tension is as important for the small airways (bronchioli), the immature lung of premature babies who do not yet have alveoli, and the primary non-alveolar avian lung as it is for the alveolar lung. This results in an essential significance of a lack or inhibition of the surfactant system in acute diseases (respiratory distress syndrome of premature babies, shock lung, ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome)).Aus: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/surfactant, last seen January 26, 2014