Research Interests:
Structure and function of surfactant apoproteins
Summary:
Our research activity is focused on the biology of the pulmonary alveolus with a particular emphasis on the structure and function of the pulmonary surfactant apoproteins. The human lung is made up of some 500 million alveoli each with a diameter of 200 microns and a septal wall thickness of only 5-8 microns. The large surface area provided by this foam-like architecture is ideal for rapid respiratory gas exchange but necessitates some unique biological answers to the threat to structural stability posed by the problem of high surface tension and the constant exposure to environmental pollutants, allergens and microbes. Pulmonary surfactant, a lipoprotein secretion of the alveolar epithelial type II cell, stabilizes alveolar structure at low transpulmonary pressures by reducing the retractile surface forces that would otherwise act to collapse the lung at end expiration. The surfactant apoproteins also act as components of the pulmonary innate defense system protecting the lung from inflammation and infection.
A derangement of alveolar stability, secondary to a developmental deficiency of surfactant, is the major factor in the pathogenesis of the respiratory distress syndrome of the newborn (RDS). My interest in the biology of surfactant grew from clinical experience in neonatology where RDS is a major cause of neonatal death. I moved to UCSF in 1982 as a research fellow with Dr. John Clements, the scientist who discovered surfactant in the late 1950’s. He started his own laboratory, focused on the proteins associated with surfactant, in 1984. By 1985 our laboratory had identified three novel surfactant-associated proteins, now known as SP-A, SP-B and SP-C, and had derived their primary structures from full-length cDNA and genomic clones. In 1993, Erica Crouch in St. Louis described a fourth protein, SP-D. The higher-order structure, genetic regulation, metabolism, and function of these proteins have been the focus of our research since that time.
We now know that the surfactant proteins have important roles in the activity of surfactant, particularly the ability to rapidly spread phospholipids at the alveolar surface. The proteins also regulate surfactant turnover and metabolism in the alveolus and play a part in non-antibody mediated response to infection and inflammation in the alveolus. The biology of these proteins is complex and they apparently function as interacting hetero-oligomers to mediate their multiple effects on surfactant biology. At least two of the surfactant proteins, SP-B and SP-C, are present in exogenous surfactants approved for clinical use and fatal human disease has been linked to inherited mutations in both these proteins. This clear link to human disease provides a strong rationale to obtain a detailed understanding of their structure and function.