Pulmonary surfactant facilitates breathing by reducing the surface tension at the air/liquid interface. We examined the effect of experimental lung transplantation on the phospholipid pool sizes of alveolar surfactant large and small aggregates, the composition of the large aggregates, the surface tension-reducing ability of lipid extract surfactant, and the leakage of serum proteins into the lung. A double-lung block from the donor animal was stored for 2 or 12 h after perfusion with either Euro-Collins solution or University of Wisconsin solution. The right donor lung was lavaged immediately after the storage period to determine the effects of storage on pulmonary surfactant. The left donor lung was transplanted. The recipient animal, containing its own native right lung and the transplanted left lung, was reperfused for 6 h. After the reperfusion period, the transplanted left lung and the native right lung were lavaged. After an ischemic time of 12 h, impaired gas exchange was observed in the transplanted lung as well as the native lung during the 6 h of reperfusion. This impaired gas exchange was associated with several significant changes in pulmonary surfactant: (1) total serum protein in the lung lavage was increased, (2) the small to large surfactant aggregate ratio was increased, (3) sphingomyelin content was increased and phosphatidylglycerol content was decreased in large aggregates, and (4) the surfactant-associated protein A content was decreased in large aggregates. No significant differences were observed between the results obtained with Euro-Collins and University of Wisconsin solutions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)