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Altering Mucus Rheology to “Solidify” Human Mucus at the Nanoscale

The ability of mucus to function as a protective barrier at mucosal surfaces rests on its viscous and elastic properties, which are not well understood at length scales relevant to pathogens and ultrafine environmental particles. Here we report that fresh, undiluted human cervicovaginal mucus (CVM)...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Lai, Samuel K., Wang, Ying-Ying, Cone, Richard, Wirtz, Denis, Hanes, Justin
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2009
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2627937/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19173002
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0004294
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author Lai, Samuel K.
Wang, Ying-Ying
Cone, Richard
Wirtz, Denis
Hanes, Justin
author_facet Lai, Samuel K.
Wang, Ying-Ying
Cone, Richard
Wirtz, Denis
Hanes, Justin
author_sort Lai, Samuel K.
collection PubMed
description The ability of mucus to function as a protective barrier at mucosal surfaces rests on its viscous and elastic properties, which are not well understood at length scales relevant to pathogens and ultrafine environmental particles. Here we report that fresh, undiluted human cervicovaginal mucus (CVM) transitions from an impermeable elastic barrier to non-adhesive objects sized 1 µm and larger to a highly permeable viscoelastic liquid to non-adhesive objects smaller than 500 nm in diameter. Addition of a nonionic detergent, present in vaginal gels, lubricants and condoms, caused CVM to behave as an impermeable elastic barrier to 200 and 500 nm particles, suggesting that the dissociation of hydrophobically-bundled mucin fibers created a finer elastic mucin mesh. Surprisingly, the macroscopic viscoelasticity, which is critical to proper mucus function, was unchanged. These findings provide important insight into the nanoscale structural and barrier properties of mucus, and how the penetration of foreign particles across mucus might be inhibited.
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spelling pubmed-26279372009-01-28 Altering Mucus Rheology to “Solidify” Human Mucus at the Nanoscale Lai, Samuel K. Wang, Ying-Ying Cone, Richard Wirtz, Denis Hanes, Justin PLoS One Research Article The ability of mucus to function as a protective barrier at mucosal surfaces rests on its viscous and elastic properties, which are not well understood at length scales relevant to pathogens and ultrafine environmental particles. Here we report that fresh, undiluted human cervicovaginal mucus (CVM) transitions from an impermeable elastic barrier to non-adhesive objects sized 1 µm and larger to a highly permeable viscoelastic liquid to non-adhesive objects smaller than 500 nm in diameter. Addition of a nonionic detergent, present in vaginal gels, lubricants and condoms, caused CVM to behave as an impermeable elastic barrier to 200 and 500 nm particles, suggesting that the dissociation of hydrophobically-bundled mucin fibers created a finer elastic mucin mesh. Surprisingly, the macroscopic viscoelasticity, which is critical to proper mucus function, was unchanged. These findings provide important insight into the nanoscale structural and barrier properties of mucus, and how the penetration of foreign particles across mucus might be inhibited. Public Library of Science 2009-01-28 /pmc/articles/PMC2627937/ /pubmed/19173002 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0004294 Text en Lai et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Lai, Samuel K.
Wang, Ying-Ying
Cone, Richard
Wirtz, Denis
Hanes, Justin
Altering Mucus Rheology to “Solidify” Human Mucus at the Nanoscale
title Altering Mucus Rheology to “Solidify” Human Mucus at the Nanoscale
title_full Altering Mucus Rheology to “Solidify” Human Mucus at the Nanoscale
title_fullStr Altering Mucus Rheology to “Solidify” Human Mucus at the Nanoscale
title_full_unstemmed Altering Mucus Rheology to “Solidify” Human Mucus at the Nanoscale
title_short Altering Mucus Rheology to “Solidify” Human Mucus at the Nanoscale
title_sort altering mucus rheology to “solidify” human mucus at the nanoscale
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2627937/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19173002
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0004294
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