Abstract
The small intestinal mucus is a complex colloidal system that coats the intestinal mucosa. It allows passage on nutrients/pharmaceuticals from the gut lumen towards the epithelium, whilst preventing it from direct contact with luminal microorganisms. Mucus collected from intestinal tissue is often used in studies looking at inter-mucosal transport of food particulates, drug carriers, etc. However, detaching the highly hydrated native mucus from the tissue and storing it frozen prior to use may disrupt its physiological microstructure, and thus selective barrier properties. Multiple-particle tracking experiments showed that microstructural organisation of native, jejunal mucus depends on its spatial location in the intestinal mucosa. The inter-villus mucus was less heterogeneous than the mucus covering villi tips in the pig model used. Collecting mucus from tissue and subjecting it to freezing and thawing did not significantly affect (P > 0.05) its permeability to model, sub-micron sized particles, and the microviscosity profile of the mucus reflected the overall profiles recorded for the native mucus in the tissue. This implies the method of collecting and storing mucus is a reliable ex vivo treatment for the convenient planning and performing of mucus-permeability studies that aim to mimic physiological conditions of the transport of molecules/particles in native mucus.
Highlights
The small intestinal mucus is a complex colloidal system that coats the intestinal mucosa
We have investigated the heterogeneity of small intestinal mucus in situ ex vivo, using particle tracking
Small intestinal mucus comprises a vast range of molecular compounds and amongst them are two major biopolymers, mucin glycoproteins and extracellular DNA12, which are large enough to contribute to the viscoelastic properties of the mucus
Summary
The small intestinal mucus is a complex colloidal system that coats the intestinal mucosa. Collecting mucus from tissue and subjecting it to freezing and thawing did not significantly affect (P > 0.05) its permeability to model, sub-micron sized particles, and the microviscosity profile of the mucus reflected the overall profiles recorded for the native mucus in the tissue. There has been a significant amount of research on the properties of mucus but much of this work has focussed on the colon[1,2,3], with rather less on the properties of mucus from the proximal small intestine[4] In both cases the primary secreted mucin is MUC2, which has a complex layered structure[5] where it is tightly adherent[4,6,7]. It was shown that other types of cross-liking agents such as polyphenols could cause gastric mucin to gel, but this was not shown with MUC2
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