Figure 5
Organization of compact mucins in complex with other proteins under physiological and dissociative conditions, as observed with electron microscopy: a mucin-based complex isolated from human tracheobronchial epithelial (HBE) secretions under physiological conditions using S1000 chromatography. The compact form shown here contains abundant protein nodes on the mucin structure. The typical molecular weight of this structure is higher than 150–200 MDa. After the GuHCl+detergent treatment and S1000 isolation under dissociative conditions (eluted with GuHCl+CHAPS), the mucin structure was more relaxed, and quite a few protein nodes remained in the structure in a more organized manner. The molecular weight was dramatically reduced (to 40–100 MDa) after these treatments.
