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Updated: Mar 24, 2026

In vivo Evaluation of Mucociliary Clearance in Mice
Published on: December 18, 2020
Influence of the Surfactant Tyloxapol on Mucociliary Clearance in Human Respiratory Cystic Fibrosis Cells
Eckhard Beubler1, Rainald Fischer, Gerald Untersteiner
1Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University Graz, Graz, Austria.
Abstract:
Dehydration of the apical surface of cystic fibrosis (CF) airway epithelia leads to a greatly impaired mucociliary clearance function in CF patients. In an in vitro cell model of human airway epithelia taken from CF patients and cultivated for 60 days, mucociliary clearance was zero. Tyloxapol, a synthetic surfactant, is able to restore the mucociliary clearance of the CF epithelia. The velocity of mucociliary clearance, using polystyrene microbeads as markers, increased within the first minute of tyloxapol treatment from zero to 12 µm/s and reached a maximum of 22 µm/s after 120 min. In conclusion, tyloxapol restores mucociliary clearance in a MucilAir™-CF model and may accordingly be efficient in CF patients to restore mucociliary clearance.
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