There’s more going on under your skin than you possibly realize.
Lung
brush: Working 24×7, microscopic cilia lining your
bronchial passages
sweep your lungs clean, allowing you to survive in an atmosphere filled
with pollutants.
Science Daily summarized a paper in
Science that
described “A Periciliary Brush Promotes the Lung Health by Separating
the Mucus Layer from Airway Epithelia” (Button et al.,
Science, 24 August 2012: Vol. 337 no. 6097 pp. 937–941,
DOI: 10.1126/science.1223012). Science Daily said,
“The cilia are constantly beating, even
while we sleep,” he says. “In a coordinated fashion, they push
mucus
containing foreign objects out of the lungs, and we either swallow it or
spit it out. These cilia even beat for a few hours after we die. If
they stopped, we’d be flooded with mucus that provides a fertile
breeding ground for bacteria.”.…
The researchers used a combination of
imaging techniques to observe a dense meshwork in the periciliary
layer of human bronchial
epithelial cell cultures. The brush-like layer
consists of protective molecules that keep sticky mucus from reaching
the cilia and epithelial cells, thus ensuring the normal flow of mucus.…
“This layer — this brush — seems to be
very important for the healthy functioning of human airways,” according
to Rubinstein. “It protects cells from sticky mucus, and it creates a
second barrier of defense in case viruses or bacteria penetrate through
the mucus. They would not penetrate through the brush layer because the
brush is denser.”
Respiratory diseases such as
COPD are apparently caused by the
collapse of this brush layer. The new findings, which replace old
notions that the mucus rested on a liquid layer, may help people
suffering from a variety of lung problems.
The BBC News write-up added
this comment:
Prof
Stephen Spiro, vice-chairman of the
British Lung Foundation, said: “Mucus has a complex biological
make-up and forms a vital part of the lungs’ defence mechanism against
potentially harmful or irritating substances, which are inhaled as small
particles….
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