Person:
Cañadas Benito, Olga

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First Name
Olga
Last Name
Cañadas Benito
Affiliation
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Faculty / Institute
Ciencias Biológicas
Department
Bioquímica y Biología Molecular
Area
Bioquímica y Biología Molecular
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UCM identifierORCIDScopus Author IDWeb of Science ResearcherIDDialnet ID

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Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Item
    Role of lipid ordered/disordered phase coexistence in pulmonary surfactant function
    (Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Biomembranes, 2012) Casals Carro, María Cristina; Cañadas Benito, Olga
    The respiratory epithelium has evolved to produce a complicated network of extracellular membranes that are essential for breathing and, ultimately, survival. Surfactant membranes form a stable monolayer at the air-liquid interface with bilayer structures attached to it. By reducing the surface tension at the air-liquid interface, surfactant stabilizes the lung against collapse and facilitates inflation. The special composition of surfactant membranes results in the coexistence of two distinct micrometer-sized ordered/disordered phases maintained up to physiological temperatures. Phase coexistence might facilitate monolayer folding to form three-dimensional structures during exhalation and hence allow the film to attain minimal surface tension. These folded structures may act as a membrane reserve and attenuate the increase in membrane tension during inspiration. The present review summarizes what is known of ordered/disordered lipid phase coexistence in lung surfactant, paying attention to the possible role played by domain boundaries in the monolayer-to-multilayer transition, and the correlations of biophysical inactivation of pulmonary surfactant with alterations in phase coexistence.
  • Item
    Bacterial lipopolysaccharide promotes destabilization of lung surfactant-like films
    (Biophysical Journal, 2011) Cañadas Benito, Olga; Keough, Kevin M.W.; Casals Carro, María Cristina
    The airspaces are lined with a dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC)-rich film called pulmonary surfactant, which is named for its ability to maintain normal respiratory mechanics by reducing surface tension at the air-liquid interface. Inhaled airborne particles containing bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) may incorporate into the surfactant monolayer. In this study, we evaluated the effect of smooth LPS (S-LPS), containing the entire core oligosaccharide region and the O-antigen, on the biophysical properties of lung surfactant-like films composed of either DPPC or DPPC/palmitoyloleoylphosphatidylglycerol (POPG)/palmitic acid (PA) (28:9:5.6, w/w/w). Our results show that low amounts of S-LPS fluidized DPPC monolayers, as demonstrated by fluorescence microscopy and changes in the compressibility modulus. This promoted early collapse and prevented the attainment of high surface pressures. These destabilizing effects could not be relieved by repeated compression-expansion cycles. Similar effects were observed with surfactant-like films composed of DPPC/POPG/PA. On the other hand, the interaction of SP-A, a surfactant membrane-associated alveolar protein that also binds to LPS, with surfactant-like films containing S-LPS increased monolayer destabilization due to the extraction of lipid molecules from the monolayer, leading to the dissolution of monolayer material in the aqueous subphase. This suggests that SP-A may act as an LPS scavenger.