Comparison of in vitro Surface Physical Properties of Four Artificial Exogenous Pulmonary Surfactant Preparations

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: We conducted this study to compare the surface physical properties of four commercial preparations of artificial exogenous pulmonary surfactants in vitro which have been used in both the prevention and treatment of respiratory distress syndrome in newborn infants. METHODS: We tested four surfactants a) Surfacten (Tokyo Tanabe, Japan) and Newfactan (Yuhan, Korea) reconstituted bovine lung extract, b) Curosurf (Cheisi, Italy) porcine lung mince; chloroform-methanol extract; liquid-gel chromatography, and c) Exosurf (Wellcome, USA), synthetic surfactant composed of colfosceril, palmitate, hexadecanol, and tyloxapol. We measured the surface adsorption rate, spreading rate, and surface tension(ST)-area diagram by using modified Wilhelmy balance and minimum(min-ST) and maximum ST(max-ST) by Pulsating Bubble Surfactometer. RESULTS: The adsorption rate of Surfacten is less than 30mN/m and those of Newfactan, Curosurf, and Exosurf are more than 30mN/m. The spreading rate of Surfaten and Newfactan are less than 30mN/m, and those of Curosurf and Exosurf are more than 30mN/m. The min-ST of Surfacten and Newfacten are less than 10mN/m, and those of Curosurf and Exosurf are more than 10mN/m. According to high performance of surface physical activities, which are compared with in vitro criteria of effective artificial surfactant, they are as follows; Surfacten>Newfactan>Curosurf>Exosurf. CONCLUSION: There are some differences between the surface physical properties of the four surfactant preparations. The natural surfactants appear to be superior to synthetic surfactant in vitro. Among the natural surfactants, Surfacten showed the best surface physical activities of spreading, adsorption and ST-lowering properties.