Comparison Of Human S-D And SP-A

Words: 421
Pages: 2

Human SP-A and SP-D exist in both pulmonary and extra-pulmonary sites within the human body (Nayak et al., 2012), sites including the placenta, foetal amniotic fluid, umbilical cord, amnion, chorion, and decidua. At 26 weeks of gestation (2nd trimester), the surfactant proteins are secreted from the foetal lungs into the surrounding amniotic fluid where they continue to increase up until full term (Miyamura et al, 1994). The chorion, amnion and the amniotic fluid can all be infected by bacteria which can lead to infections in both the mother and foetus, leading to complications such as lung infections in preterm neonates (Vandivier et al., 2002, 2006). The ability to clear the infection is therefore of upmost importance. The ability to clear dead cells from the uterine tissues would also diminish the rate of inflammation due to the presence of dead cells in the uterine environment. …show more content…
The mice lacking SP-A cleared lung pathogens slower and were therefore more susceptible to lung infections. Slower clearance of GBS supports the concept that SP-A plays an important role in innate immunity, protecting the lung from microbial infection and