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A Method for the Visualization of Pulmonary Surfactant in the Light Microscope
Gerald B. Dermer, PhD
Arch Intern Med. 1971;127(3):415-420.
Abstract
Tricomplex flocculation has been used to visualize pulmonary surfactant phospholipid in the light microscope in a similar manner to its original application as a staining method for spots of phospholipid on chromatographic paper. Fixation of lung and staining of surfactant are performed in one operation by combining glutaraldehyde with the tricomplex reagents. The staining solution is composed of appropriate amounts of acid fuchsin, uranyl nitrate, and 0.1N hydrochloride in water. After glutaraldehyde-tricomplex treatment, sections of human and rat lungs examined with phase optics show a blue layer of material lining epithelial surfaces of alveoli and similar material within type II alveolar cells. It is believed that this material represents the alveolar surface layer of surfactant phospholipid and the sites of synthesis and storage of this material within alveolar type II cells.
Author Affiliations
Los Angeles
From the Department of Pathology, Hospital of the Good Samaritan Medical Center.
Footnotes
Received for publication Nov 18, 1970; accepted Dec 1.
Read in part before the Tenth Annual Hanford Biology Symposium on Pollution and Lung Biochemistry, June 3, 1970, jointly sponsored by the Battelle Memorial Institute-Pacific Northwest Laboratories, National Air Pollution Control Administration, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the US Atomic Energy Commission.
Reprint requests to 1212 Shatto St, Los Angeles 90017 (Dr. Dermer).
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