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Lamellar bodies, the intracellular storage form of pulmonary surfactant, were isolated from adult human lung tissue. As shown by electron microscopy, the isolated human lamellar bodies resembled the lamellar bodies isolated from experimental animals. Chemical analysis revealed that the lamellar bodies consisted largely of lipids, particularly phospholipids (85%). The major phospholipid was phosphatidylcholine, which accounted for 71% of the total phospholipids. Phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine were 10 and 8%, respectively, of the lamellar body phospholipid. Phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylinositol, lysophosphatidylcholine, and sphingomyelin were minor components. Cholesterol was found to represent 60% of the neutral lipids or 9% of the total lipids. Phosphatidylcholine contained largely saturated fatty acids, of which palmitic acid was the most abundant. Disaturated phosphatidylcholines comprised 67% of the total phosphatidylcholines. Phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine contained considerably less saturated fatty acids. Only 24% of phosphatidylglycerol was disaturated. The chemical composition of adult human lamellar bodies was very similar to that of lamellar bodies derived from experimental animals. The similarities in morphology and chemical composition of lamellar bodies suggest that surfactant metabolism in human lung may be similar to that of other mammals.

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Samples were taken at biopsies of peripheral lung tissue from patients with and without emphysema. The emphysematous patients were diagnosed as such by lung function tests and clinical history, and affirmed by the pathological anatomy of the resection preparations. The other group comprised patients negative for emphysema in all respects. A number of biochemically important substances were determined quantitatively in the dried, powder and defatted lung tissue. Typical cellular parameters, such as DNA, RNA and protein, were not different in the groups. Neither the soluble nor the buffer-insoluble collagen were quantitatively different in both groups; the individual variation is great. The amount of soluble collagen relative to the insoluble collagen per sample is much less variable; this ratio is the same in both groups as well. The total amount of mucopolysaccharides as measured by the uronic acid content is hardly different in both groups. The relative amount of galactosamine-containing mucopolysaccharides in emphysematous patients is significantly lower than in ‘normals’. This is still more evident if the ratio glucosamine/galactosamine is determined. This ratio is 3.20 for emphysematous patients compared to 0.77 in the non-emphysematous subjects.