Physical Properties of Mucin Molecules Extracted from Saliva (2015)

Undergraduates: Alyssa Vassallo, Philippe Lorchat

Faculty Advisor: Michael Rubinstein
Department: Chemistry

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Cystic Fibrosis patients possess an abnormal gene that causes thick, concentrated mucus secretion. The high osmotic pressure crushes the cilia layer covering airways. As a result, they are not able to efficiently clear mucus. This study focuses on the physical properties of solutions of mucin, extremely large, charge-bearing macromolecules. In order to obtain clean mucin samples, saliva is first purified using ultracentrifugation, PAS staining, and dialysis. Light scattering is then used to determine the average size of mucin molecules. Using small angle x-ray scattering, the internal structure of mucin is investigated. Saliva osmotic pressure measurements are taken with semi-permeable membranes of varying pore sizes to compare to mucus osmotic pressure. The difference in these pressures may reveal useful results to design new therapeutic drugs decreasing the osmotic pressure of mucus in order to achieve increased mucus clearance.