HT-29 cells selected by adaptation to 10(-5) M methotrexate (HT-29 MTX) are a homogeneous cell population producing high amounts of mucin. Intracellular mucins and proteoglycans were isolated from these cells by ultracentrifugation of cell lysates on a cesium bromide gradient and further separated by anion-exchange high performance liquid chromatography. The major mucin fraction isolated was ch...

Interactions between Yersinia enterocolitica and purified intestinal mucins from rabbit and humans were investigated. Plasmid-bearing virulent organisms (but not plasmid-free nonvirulent bacteria) bound well to both mucins, suggesting that adherence was controlled by the virulence plasmid. Examination of binding to 14 different preparations of purified human intestinal mucin (8 preparations obt...

The macromolecular properties of cervical-mucus glycoproteins (mucins) were studied as a function of the concentration of guanidinium chloride with conventional light-scattering, photon-correlation spectroscopy and sedimentation-velocity centrifugation. No evidence for an association of the mucins in 0.2M-NaCl as compared with 6M-guanidinium chloride was found at mucin concentrations below appr...

Mucus clearance is the first defense of a normal airway against airborne pathogens and pollutants. However, mucus hypersecretion—an important feature of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), especially the chronic bronchitis phenotype—contributes to disease pathology and mortality. Prescriptions of some mucoactive medications, e.g. N-acetylcysteine and carbocysteine, have proved benefic...

Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies that trap viruses in cervicovaginal mucus (CVM) via adhesive interactions between IgG-Fc and mucins have recently emerged as a promising strategy to block vaginally transmitted infections. The array of IgG bound to a virus particle appears to trap the virus by making multiple weak affinity bonds to the fibrous mucins that form the mucus gel. However, the antibo...

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been used to investigate the heterogeneity and flexibility of human ocular mucins and their subunits. We have paid particular attention, in terms of theory and experiment, to the problem of inducing the polymers to assume equilibrium conformations at a surface. Mucins deposited from a buffer containing Ni(2+) ions adopt extended conformations on mica akin to th...

Helicobacter pylori is able to colonize gastric epithelia, causing chronic active gastritis, gastric and duodenal ulcers and presumably gastric malignancies. Attempts to identify the natural reservoir for this microorganism other than the stomach have been unsuccessful. It is suspected that H. pylori can be transmitted orally, since the microorganism has been detected at various sites of the or...

BACKGROUND Bacterial gastroenteritis causes morbidity and mortality in humans worldwide. Murine Citrobacter rodentium infection is a model for gastroenteritis caused by the human pathogens enteropathogenic Escherichia coli and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli. Mucin glycoproteins are the main component of the first barrier that bacteria encounter in the intestinal tract. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDI...

The mucus layer that coats the airway epithelium provides a protective barrier against pathogenic and noxious agents and participates in the mucosal response to inflammation and infection. Airway mucus is composed of water, ions, lung secretions, serum protein transudates, and mucin glycoproteins (mucins). Mucins are the major components of mucus and the macromolecules that impart rheologic pro...

Although mucins are essential for the protection of internal epithelial surfaces, molecular responses involving mucin production and secretion in response to various infectious agents in the airway have not been fully elucidated. The present study analysed airway goblet cell mucins in rats infected with the nematode Nippostrongylus brasiliensis, which migrates to the lungs shortly after infecti...