Electrochemical methods in surface-activity studies of lung surfactant. I. Polarographic maximum suppressing ability of lung surfactant.

It is shown that lung surfactant behaves as a typical surface-active substance and as such suppresses polarographic maxima of the first kind. The degree of suppression is controlled by surface activity of the surfactant. This permitted development of a rapid and reproducible polarographic method for lung surfactant surface-activity measurements, consisting of recording the polarographic maxima of a saline Co3+ solution before and after the surfactant was added.