Mucociliary function in the respiratory tract as influenced by physicochemical factors

An in vitro model for studying the effects of pharmacological agents on human ciliary beat frequency: effects of lignocaine.

“…Atropine and codeine, but not morphine, have been shown to decrease ciliary activity (Iravani & Melville, 1976). The bronchoscopy patients were all smokers while the normal subjects who received aerosolised lignocaine were not.…”

“…Many drugs used in clinical practice have been shown to have an effect on pulmonary mucociliary clearance (MCC) in a variety of species (Iravani & Melville, 1976;Sackner, 1978;Wanner, 1977). Such a pharmacological effect may be mediated via the ciliary or mucous components of this respiratory defence mechanism and distinguishing between these two factors underlies one of the major difficulties in understanding the effects of drugs on human MCC.…”

Effect of pilocarpine on behavior of mucus glycoproteins of canine tracheal secretory cells.

“…Pilocarpine at 10-7 and 10-6 M increased the thickness from 21.2±1.4 (control) to 24.8±3. 4 and 29.0±6.4 ,um, respectively, whereas at higher concentrations, it sig nificantly decreased the thickness to 13.4±1.4 Other explanations are as in Fig. 3.…”

“…The viscosity of mucus is definitely dependent on its content of acid glycoprotein (AGP) (2)(3)(4). Pilocarpine has been found to increase the respiratory tract fluid volume in vivo (5-7).…”

Bronchial Hyperreactivity in the Peripheral Airways.

“…However, mucus secretion from goblet cells in the peripheral airway has not been studied yet. Iravani and Melville (1976) have reported that cilia in the trachea beat faster and with greater amplitude than those in the peripheral airway. The slower mucociliary transport in the peripheral airway may be one of the reasons that the inflammatory site begins mainly in the peripheral airway (Hogg et al 1968).…”