Mucus structure: Relation to biological transport function1

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Abstract
The presence of mucus is apparently essential for particle clearance on a ciliated epithelium [bovine, human, frog]. There is a rheological requirement on mucus to couple mechanically with ciliary beat and effect transport which is fulfilled by a lightly crosslinked macromolecular network. Glycoproteins sharing many features in common can be isolated from mucus samples of different origins. Differences in transport rates for various mucus samples on an epithelium may arise from differences in the degree of crosslinking between similar basic structural macromolecular units. Mucus accumulation, seen in diseased states, may be the consequence of an altered degree of crosslinking.