title: Rotating magnetic particle microrheometry in biopolymer fluid dynamics: mucus microrheology.
abstract: The polymer properties of canine mucus were investigated through the method of rotating magnetic particle microrheometry. Mucus is visualized as a physically entangled biopolymer of low polydispersity in a water-based solution. Mucus was modeled according to the constitutive law of a Doi-Edwards fluid. The magnetic-particle equation of rotational motion is analytically solved in the linear viscoelastic limit rendering theoretical flow profiles which are used to fit the experimental trace signals of the particle remanent-magnetic-field decay. The zero-shear-rate viscosity was found to be 18,000 P and the relaxation time at about 42 s. The molecular weight between entanglements for mucins was estimated at 1.7 MDa rendering an estimation of about seven physical cross-links per molecule. Rheological investigations were extended also to diluted and concentrated rations of the normal mucus simulating the conditions found in more physiological extremes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, The University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60680, USA. besseris@teipir.gr
authors.forename: George J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Besseris
authors.forename: Donovan B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Yeates
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001704:Biopolymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D004548:Elasticity; D008280:Magnetics; D008832:Microchemistry; D008954:Models, Biological; D009093:Mucus / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size; D012212:Rheology; D012996:Solutions / Q000737:chemistry*; D013997:Time Factors; D014783:Viscosity
chemical_list: D001704:Biopolymers; D012996:Solutions