Pulmonary Surfactant-associated Protein A1 - Clinical Significance

Clinical Significance

Deficiency in SP-A levels is associated with infant respiratory distress syndrome in prematurely born infants with developmental insufficiency of surfactant production and structural immaturity in the lungs.

SFTPA1 genetic variants, SNPs, haplotypes, and other genetic variations have been associated with acute and chronic lung disease in several populations of neonates, children, and adults. Genetic variations in SFTPA1 have been associated with susceptibility to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease characterized by shortness of breath, pulmonary infiltrates and inflammation that results in acute lung injury with subsequent scarring of lung tissue. Genetic variations in SFTPA1 are also a cause of susceptibility to respiratory distress syndrome in premature infants, a lung disease characterized by deficient gas exchange, diffuse atelectasis, high-permeability lung edema and fibrin-rich alveolar deposits "surfactant protein A1". . The ratio of SP-A1 to total SP-A has been correlated with lung disease (e.g. asthma, cystic fibrosis) and aging. Methylation of SFTPA1 promoter sequences has also been found in lung cancer tissue.

Read more about this topic:  Pulmonary Surfactant-associated Protein A1

Famous quotes containing the word significance:

    Politics is not an end, but a means. It is not a product, but a process. It is the art of government. Like other values it has its counterfeits. So much emphasis has been placed upon the false that the significance of the true has been obscured and politics has come to convey the meaning of crafty and cunning selfishness, instead of candid and sincere service.
    Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)