Phosphatidylcholine

RDS is caused by a defective or delayed production of surfactant in structurally immature lungs. Surfactant is a complex mixture of phospholipids and proteins secreted by the type

The presence of fluid in the alveolar space could potentially cause the lung capacity to be effected as well.

• Pulse Oximetry - Tests the percentage of oxygen in the blood. 95% or more is a normal level,

Tadpoles, like humans, start developing lungs at a young age. Tadpoles’ lungs start to develop just like humans. Like tadpoles, humans start out by breathing in water and after twenty-three weeks the lungs are fully developed and ready to breathe air. It takes tadpoles around “… 4 weeks for the gills to start getting grown over by skin, until they eventually disappear” (Life Cycle of a Frog, 2015). Since it does not take a tadpole’s lungs as long to develop, scientists are able to use tadpoles to study the effects the different drugs or molecules might have on human lungs while they are developing.

3-7: The cells of the connective tissue pictured below in a cross section from the trachea are specialized for fat storage and do not form ground substance or fibers.  On prepared slides, this type tissue appears somewhat like a fish net with white spaces connected together in a network.  The cytoplasm and nucleus have been pushed to one side by a single, large, fat-filled

The Respiratory system is an integrated system of organs involved in the intake and exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between an organism and the environment. Your Respiratory system is made up of the organs in your body that help you breathe. The Respiratory system is the system of the body that deals with breathing. The trachea is a wind pipe. The trachea is a pipe shaped by rings of cartillage. A Bronchi are two tubes that carry air into the lungs. The Respiratory system consistes of many different organs. The organs are the lungs, trachea, bronchi, alveoli, diaphragm, nose, mouth, and pharynx. In the Respiratory system the right lung is larger and has more lobes that the left lung becuase the heart is normally located on the left side, and takes up space where the lung would had been. The functions of the Respiratory system is to supply the blood with oxygen in order for the blood to deliver oxygen to all parts of the body. The Respiratory system is also used for the of exchange gases. The importance of the Respiratory system is that it allows for the exchange of gases; meaning carbon dioxide and oxygen. These gas exchanges occur in the alveoli's and the capillaries. This gas exchange of gases is the Respiratory system's means of getting oxygen to the blood. The goal of breathing is to

Small air sacks called alveoli are at the tips of the bronchioles. When air reaches them, the oxygen concentration is high, which causes diffusion into red blood cells travelling through pulmonary capillaries (7). The red blood cells then distribute the new oxygen to the rest of the body. When they reach the alveoli again, they exchange carbon dioxide (a form of cell waste) for new oxygen, and repeat the process. The carbon dioxide is moved through the bronchioles, bronchi, and trachea in the form of exhalation.

Another group of patients which require challenging ventilation strategies are the preterm infants. The lungs of preterm infants have undeveloped distal airway structures, with a thick air/blood barrier and a small surface area for gas-exchange (Wallace et al., 2009). They are most likely to be surfactant deficient due to under-developed epithelial cells which lack the type II alveolar cells (Wallace et al., 2009). As a result, preterm infants often require respiratory support in the minutes following birth (Roupie et al., 1995).

In the alveolar walls are cells that secrete a fluid, which keeps the inner surface of the alveoli moist allowing gases to dissolve. This fluid, called a surfactant, in the alveoli also contains also prevents the thin walls of the alveoli from sticking to each other. The moist alveoli allows for efficient gas exchange as it allows the gases to diffuse in solution which is more efficient than just diffusing as a gas.

- The walls of the alveoli are made up of simple squamous epithelial tissue to allow quick diffusion

The respiratory system is the process responsible for the transportation and exchange of gases into and out of the human body. As we breath in, oxygen in the air containing oxygen is drawn into the lungs through a series of air pipes known as the airway and into the lungs. As air is drawn into the lungs and waste gas excreted, it passes through the airway, first through the mouth or nose and through the pharynx, larynx and windpipe – also known as the trachea. At this point it then enters the lungs through the bronchi before finally reaching the air sacs known as alveoli. Within the lungs, through a process known as diffusion, the oxygen is transferred to the blood stream through the alveoli (air ducts) where it is then transported inside

The placenta is a major source of fetal prostaglandins and its removal after birth allows for the lungs to expand and become metabolically active, where most prostaglandins are degraded. This, in combination with increased pulmonary oxygen tension, in healthy full-term infants, normally causes functional closure of the ductus arteriosus within 15 hours after birth.

The most serious of these being hyaline membrane disease (HMD), most commonly known as RDS or respiratory distress syndrome. Babies that suffer from this condition will tend to find it very difficult to breathe due to the increased surface tension and the ultimate lack of oxygen transported through the body can seriously impair and damage the functions of the brain and other organs of the baby. Surfactant deficiency’s can also sometimes be caused by mutations in a particular gene. An example of this is surfactant protein or SP-B deficiency. This particular dysfunction is hereditary and is caused by a gene mutation on chromes number two. Babies that suffer from tis condition rarely survive past a few months. However there are some procedures that can help babies who may have been born prematurely and have not manufactured enough surfactants to support regular functions. Surfactant replacement therapy and surfactant supplements are amongst the most popular treatments of these types of surfactant deficiencies in newly born

Preterm infants are born during the late cannalicular to early saccular stages of lung development, which corresponds to the period when respiratory bronchioles capable for gas exchange and type II alveolar

Air enters your lungs through a system of pipes called the bronchi. These pipes start from the bottom of the trachea as the left and right bronchi and branch many times throughout the lungs, until they eventually form little thin-walled air sacs or bubbles, known as the alveoli. The alveoli are where the important work of gas exchange takes place between the air and your blood. Covering each alveolus is a whole network of little blood vessel called capillaries, which are very small branches of the pulmonary arteries. It is important that the air in the alveoli and the blood in the capillaries are very close together, so that oxygen and carbon dioxide can move (or diffuse) between them. So, when you breathe in, air comes down the trachea and through the bronchi into