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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Aug 24.
Published in final edited form as: Science. 2012 Aug 24;337(6097):937–941. doi: 10.1126/science.1223012

Fig. 4. Osmotic compression of the PCL-brush by mucus and mucus simulants.

Fig. 4

(A) Representative XZ-confocal images showing progressive compression of the PCL brush by large dextran molecules (d > 50 nm) of increasing osmotic moduli. Scale bars = 7 μm. (B) Summary data of the exclusion thickness (z) of the large dextran molecules (green circles) and endogenous mucus (red squares) versus their osmotic moduli. Data points are mean ± SD (n = 3–5). Dashed black line represents the best linear fit to the dependence of PCL height on the logarithm of osmotic modulus of mucus/mucus simulants for z < 6 μm: z ≈ 7μm − 3.15Log(K/340Pa). The highlighted region represents the osmotic modulus of a fully-hydrated (healthy) PCL, K0 ≈ 300±60 Pa, above which noticeable decrease of the PCL height was observed.