ABSTRACT
I. Alveolar Surfactant 287
II. Estimating the Tension at the Pulmonary Air-Water Interface: In Vitro Methods 290 A. The Langmuir-Wilhelmy method 290 B. The pulsating bubble surfactometer 292 C. The captive bubble method 292
III. Surface Tension-Area Relations 295
IV. Particle Displacement and Airway Surfactant 297
V. Particle Surfactant Interactions 299
VI. Conclusions 303
I. ALVEOLAR SURFACTANT The pulmonary air-liquid interfacial film reduces the surface tension in the parenchyma to less than 1 mN/m on lung deflation. In addition to a low and stable surface tension, interdependence provided by the fibrous network enables the lung to maintain a large alveolar surface area (approximately 140 m2 in the adult human lung) necessary for efficient gas exchange [1].
