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J Appl Physiol (July 14, 2005). doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00485.2005
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Submitted on April 28, 2005
Accepted on July 10, 2005

Elastic properties of the bronchial mucosa: epithelial unfolding and stretch in response to airway inflation

P. B. Noble1, A. Sharma1, P. K. McFawn1, and H. W. Mitchell1*

1 Physiology, School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mitchell{at}cyllene.uwa.edu.au.

The bronchial mucosa contributes to elastic properties of the airway wall and may influence the degree of airway expansion during lung inflation. In the deflated lung the epithelium and associated basement membrane, has folds which progressively unfold on inflation. Whether the epithelium and basement membrane also distend as well as unfold on lung inflation at physiological pressures is uncertain. We assessed mucosal distensibility from strain-stress curves in mucosal strips and related this to epithelial length and folding. Mucosal strips were prepared from pig bronchi and were cycled step-wise between strain 0 (their in situ length at zero transmural pressure) to strain 0.5 (50% increase in length). Mucosal stress and epithelial length present in situ were calculated from morphometric data in bronchial segments fixed at 5 and 25 cmH2O lumen pressures. Mucosal strips showed non-linear strain-stress properties but had regions at a high and low stress that where close to linear. Stresses calculated in bronchial segments at 5 and 25 cmH2O fell in the low stress region of the strain-stress curve. The epithelium of mucosal strips was deeply folded at low strains (0-0.15) which in bronchial segments equated to transmural pressures ≤10 cmH2O. Morphometric measurements in mucosal strips at greater strains (0.3-0.4) indicated that epithelial length increased by ~10%. Measurements in bronchial segments indicated that epithelial length increased ~25% between 5 and 25 cmH2O. Findings suggest that at airway pressures up to 10 cmH2O airway expansion is due primarily to epithelial unfolding but at higher pressures the epithelium also distends.




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