Adhesive and Cohesive Peel Force Measurement of Human Airway Mucus
Henry Goodell,
Siddharth Shenoy,
Nathan Shenkute,
Elijah Lackey,
Robert Dennis,
Brian Button
Affiliations
Henry Goodell
Marsico Lung Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7248, USADepartment of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7575, USA
Siddharth Shenoy
Marsico Lung Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7248, USA
Nathan Shenkute
Marsico Lung Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7248, USA
Elijah Lackey
Marsico Lung Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7248, USA
Robert Dennis
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7575, USA
Brian Button
Marsico Lung Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7248, USADepartment of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7575, USA, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7260, USA
In health, the high-speed airflow associated with cough represents a vital backup mechanism for clearing accumulated mucus from our airways. However, alterations in the mucus layer in cystic fibrosis (CF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) leads to the mucus layer adhered to the airway surfaces, representing the nidus of chronic lung infection. To understand what is different about diseased mucus and why cough clearance is defective, there is a need for techniques to quantify the strength of the interactions limiting the ability of airflow to strip mucus from the airway surface (i.e., adhesive strength) or tear mucus apart (i.e., cohesive strength). To overcome the issues with measuring these properties in a soft (i.e., low elastic modulus) mucus layer, we present here novel peel-testing technologies capable of quantifying the mucus adhesive strength on cultured airway cells and cohesive strength of excised mucus samples. While this protocol focuses on measurements of airway mucus, this approach can easily be adapted to measuring adhesive/cohesive properties of other soft biological materials.
