Back to Search
Start Over
Helicobacter pylori Couples Motility and Diffusion to Actively Create a Heterogeneous Complex Medium in Gastric Mucus.
- Source :
-
Physical Review Letters . May2016, Vol. 116 Issue 19, p1-1. 1p. - Publication Year :
- 2016
-
Abstract
- Helicobacter pylori swims through mucus gel by generating ammonia that locally neutralizes the acidic gastric environment, turning nearby gel into a fluid pocket. The size of the fluid zone is important for determining the physics of the motility: in a large zone swimming occurs as in a fluid through hydrodynamic principles, while in a very small zone the motility could be strongly influenced by nonhydrodynamic cell-mucus interactions including chemistry and adhesion. Here, we calculate the size of the fluid pocket. We model how swimming depends on the de-gelation range using a Taylor sheet swimming through a layer of Newtonian fluid bounded by a Brinkman fluid. Then, we model how the de-gelation range depends on the swimming speed by considering the advection-diffusion of ammonia exuded from a translating sphere. Self-consistency between both models determines the values of the swimming speed and the de-gelation range. We find that H. pylori swims through mucus as if unconfined, in a large pocket of Newtonian fluid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *HELICOBACTER pylori
*MUCUS
*NEWTONIAN fluids
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00319007
- Volume :
- 116
- Issue :
- 19
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Physical Review Letters
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 116939031
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.198101