The yielding behaviour of human mucus

Abstract

Mucus is a viscoelastic material with non-linear rheological properties such as a yield stress of the order of a few hundreds of millipascals to a few tens of pascals, due to a complex network of mucins in water along with non-mucin proteins, DNA and cell debris. In this review, we discuss the origin of the yield stress in human mucus, the changes in the rheology of mucus with the occurrence of diseases, and possible clinical applications in disease detection as well as cure. We delve into the domain of mucus rheology, examining both macro- and microrheology. Macrorheology involves investigations conducted at larger length scales (∼ a few hundreds of μm or higher) using traditional rheometers, which probe properties on a bulk scale. It is significant in elucidating various mucosal functions within the human body. This includes rejecting unwanted irritants out of lungs through mucociliary and cough clearance, protecting the stomach wall from the acidic environment as well as biological entities, safeguarding cervical canal from infections and providing a swimming medium for sperms. Additionally, we explore microrheology, which encompasses studies performed at length scales ranging from a few tens of nm to a μm. These microscale studies find various applications, including the context of drug delivery. Finally, we employ scaling analysis to elucidate a few examples in lung, cervical, and gastric mucus, including settling of irritants in lung mucus, yielding of lung mucus in cough clearance and cilial beating, spreading of exogenous surfactants over yielding mucus, swimming of Helicobacter pylori through gastric mucus, and lining of protective mucus in the stomach. The scaling analyses employed on the applications mentioned above provide us with a deeper understanding of the link between the rheology and the physiology of mucus.

Keywords: Human mucus; Mucins; Rheology; Viscoelasticity; Yield stress.