Isolation of Membrane Bound Mucins from Human Bronchial Epithelial Cells

Membrane-bound mucins constitute a large portion of the periciliary layer of lung epithelial surfaces, and thus play an important role in many aspects of innate defense. The biophysical and biochemical properties of the membrane-bound mucins have important implications for mucociliary clearance, viral penetration, and potential therapeutics delivered to the airway surface. Hence, isolating them and determining these properties is important in understanding airways disease and ultimately in developing treatments. Here, we describe a method using isopycnic centrifugation to enrich and isolate shed membrane-bound mucins from the washings of human bronchial epithelial cell cultures.