In situ pulmonary mucus hydration assay using rotational and translational diffusion of gold nanorods with polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography.

Significance:Assessing the nanostructure of polymer solutions and biofluids is broadly useful for understanding drug delivery and disease progression and for monitoring therapy. Aim:Our objective is to quantify bronchial mucus solids concentration (wt. %) during hypertonic saline (HTS) treatment in vitro via nanostructurally constrained diffusion of gold nanorods (GNRs) monitored by polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT). Approach:Using PS-OCT, we quantified GNR translational (DT) and rotational (DR) diffusion coefficients within polyethylene oxide solutions (0 to 3 wt. %) and human bronchial epithelial cell (hBEC) mucus (0 to 6.4 wt. %). Interpolation of DT and DR data is used to develop an assay to quantify mucus concentration. The assay is demonstrated on the mucus layer of an air-liquid interface hBEC culture during HTS treatment. Results:In polymer solutions and mucus, DT and DR monotonically decrease with increasing concentration. DR is more sensitive than DT to changes above 1.5 wt. % of mucus and exhibits less intrasample variability. Mucus on HTS-treated hBEC cultures exhibits dynamic mixing from cilia. A region of hard-packed mucus is revealed by DR measurements. Conclusions:The extended dynamic range afforded by simultaneous measurement of DT and DR of GNRs using PS-OCT enables resolving concentration of the bronchial mucus layer over a range from healthy to disease in depth and time during HTS treatment in vitro.