Gold Na**rods Help Measure Viscosity of Lung Mucus This image, captured by the UNC team, shows Gold Na**rods diffusing into a layer of mucus. The speckles in the top part of the image are due to rapid light intensity fluctuations caused by the Gold Na**rods as they move through the mucus. The black layer underneath is human Lung cells, and the lack of green speckle shows that the Na**rods have **t penetrated the cells. The lines of solid color are the membrane. Credit: Amy Oldenburg, et al/UNC
People with*lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis and COPD can suffer from mucus*build up in the lungs, limiting their breathing and making life pretty miserable. Mucolytic ***** that thin the Mucus can be used, but following up with patients to see how these ***** are working deep within the lungs has been practically impossible. Researchers from University of **rth Carolina at Chapel Hill will soon be reporting at the Optical Society’s upcoming 98th Annual Meeting on a new na**tech**logy technique to analyze the Viscosity of mucus.
The team used Gold na**rods, which were deposited on top of a Mucus sample, and a laser to watch how the rods penetrated through the sample. They discovered that the slower the rods mixed into the mucus, the more viscous it was. More importantly, though, since Mucus within the lungs doesn’t stay put, but moves along helped by cilia, the technique works just as well when the Mucus slides atop stationary human Lung cells.
The researchers **te that this technique, so far tested in a laboratory environment, is still a long way from being offered to doctors for clinical use since it’s **t k**wn whether the Na**rods will eventually exit the lungs and what effects they may have on the body.
10-10-2014, 07:42 PM
Gold Na**rods Help Measure Viscosity of Lung Mucus
This image, captured by the UNC team, shows Gold Na**rods diffusing into a layer of mucus. The speckles in the top part of the image are due to rapid light intensity fluctuations caused by the Gold Na**rods as they move through the mucus. The black layer underneath is human Lung cells, and the lack of green speckle shows that the Na**rods have **t penetrated the cells. The lines of solid color are the membrane. Credit: Amy Oldenburg, et al/UNC
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