Measuring mucus rheology in airway epithelial cultures for donor and disease phenotyping

In the airways, effective mucociliaryc clearance of pathogens and debris depends on both ciliary beat and mucus properties (e.g., rheology such as viscoelastic moduli). Abnormal mucus rheology is associated with chronic airway diseases. We hypothesize that mucus rheology can be used to subtype disease stages, phenotype donors, and potentially predict disease onset and progression. However, mucus rheology can be difficult to study. Many techniques are limited in accessibility and throughput for both in vitro experiments and clinical settings. Here, we aim to simplify mucus rheology measurements using differential dynamic microscopy requiring only micro-liter volumes of mucus and a bright-field microscope with a high-speed (~100 frames per second) camera. Analysis of passive tracer motion in Fourier domain avoids trajectory tracking and enables fast and high-throughput acquisition suitable for screening. We will present our methodology and preliminary data showing donor-to-donor variability and impact of IL-13 treatment on mucus rheology of in vitro airway epithelial cultures. Fig 1: Mucus components mucin 5AC (MUC5AC) and secretoglobin (CC16) on top of ciliated airway epithelia (stained with acetylated alpha-tubulin (ATUB). <fig><object-id>erj;64/suppl_68/PA2655/F1</object-id><object-id>F1</object-id><object-id>F1</object-id><graphic></graphic></fig>