Pleural mesothelium lubrication after hyaluronidase, neuraminidase or pronase treatment.

Coefficient of kinetic friction (μ) of pleural mesothelium has been found to increase markedly after mesothelial blotting and rewetting. This increase disappeared after addition of a solution with hyaluronan or sialomucin, though previous morphological studies showed that only sialomucin occurs in mesothelial glycocalyx. In this research we investigated whether μ of rabbit pleural mesothelium increased after hyaluronidase, neuraminidase or pronase treatment. Hyaluronidase and neuraminidase did not increase μ, though neuraminidase cleaved sialic acid from mesothelial glycocalyx of diaphragm specimens, and removed hystochemical stain of sialic acid from glycocalyx. Sialomucin treated with neuraminidase lowered μ of blotted mesothelium, though less than untreated sialomucin; this feature plus lubrication provided by other molecules could explain why μ did not increase after neuraminidase. Short pronase treatment (in order to affect only glycocalyx proteins) increased μ; this increase was removed by hyaluronan or sialomucin. After pronase treatment μ decreased with increase in sliding velocity, indicating a regime of mixed lubrication, as in blotted mesothelium.