The Surfactant system of the camel lung biochemical and physiological correlations

This work was performed by using a total of 84 clinically examined camels.Lungs of these camels were classified into: A- 16 groups representing clinically healthy male and female oftwo different age categories; form 2-3 years and 6-10 years during winter, spring, summer and autumn.B- Two diseased groups representing females at the age 6-10 years during spring; one group affected with pneumonia and the other group having hydatid cysts. Lungs were lavaged with saline, the lavages from each lung lobewere collected, pooled, filtered and centrifuged, then used for thefollowing estimations:The concentrations of calcium, total lipids, total proteins phospholipids, cholesterol, triacylglycerols, in addition to the percentage of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine were determined chemically. Protein fractions were separated by SDS vertical slab polgel electrophoresis. Phospholipid fractions were separated using HPLC.