Preliminary characterization of mucin from effusions of cleft palate patients

Middle ear effusions from children undergoing myringotomy were classified into three groups-cleft palate, thick (mucoid), and thin (serous). Mucin was purified from each of the three groups using CsCI equilibrium density gradient centrifugation. Analysis of the cleft palate mucin on Sepharose CL-2B showed it was excluded and therefore of large molecular weight. It could be broken down into smaller glycopeptide units by proteolysis and these glycopeptides had, based on elution position, a larger hydrodynamic size than those from the thick mucin. Intrinsic viscosity measurements demonstrated that the intact mucins could be ranked in order of molecular space occupancy; cleft palate > thick > thin. Amino acid analysis showed the cleft palate mucin to have an amino acid composition similar to other mucins, with serine, threonine, and proline constituting 41% by weight of the protein core. Thiol analysis gave evidence of a possible difference in polymerization between the three mucins, in that thin (the smallest mucin) contained the lowest number of thiols. This preliminary analysis of cleft palate mucin suggests a mucin with larger glycopeptide units forming an intact mucin of larger hydrodynamic size than either thick or thin middle ear mucins from anatomically normal children.