Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health Commons^™

Effect Of Progesterone, Terbutaline And Leptin On The Function Of Alveolar Type Ii Cells, Shamili Sammohi

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The "surfactant" produced by type II pneumonocytes is deficient in term and preterm infants born and diagnosed with Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS). Corticosteroids such as dexamethasone or betamethasone are clinically used as the primary line of treatment to stimulate the production of surfactant. The steroidal hormone, progesterone appears to play a role in the fetal lung development and also appears to increase the expression of inflammatory markers in both term and preterm infants. However, the impact of progesterone on surfactant production remains unknown. Like progesterone, the tocolytic drug terbutaline has also been implicated in phosphatidylcholine production in the pneumonocytes of …