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The Quantity and Structural Quality of SP-A and SP-D Present in the Airways of Influenza-infected Patients

Influenza A virus (IAV) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Surfactant proteins A and D (SP-A and SP-D) are important lung innate immune proteins and have been shown in vitro and in mice to both neutralize and enhance the clearance of various IAV strains. In this study we hypothesized that SP-A and SP-D levels will be lower in human bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluids from patients who have tested positive for influenza, as well as bacterial or fungal pathogens compared to controls. We have found that patients who have detectable IAV, bacteria or fungus have lower levels of SP-A and SP-D as detected by western blot analysis and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) when compared to controls. Also, we found minor differences in the oligomerization and no differences in the glycosylation of SP-A and SP-D among BALs that detected the proteins on a Western blot.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:OTU.1807/25437
Date15 December 2010
CreatorsBresner, Lauren Alison
ContributorsPalaniyar, Nades
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
Languageen_ca
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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