Surface Tension Gradient Driven Spreading on Aqueous Mucin Solutions: A Possible Route to Enhanced Pulmonary Drug Delivery

Surface tension gradient driven, or Marangoni, flow can be used to move exogenous fluid, either surfactant dispersions or drug carrying formulations, through the lung. In this paper, we investigate the spreading of aqueous solutions of water-soluble surfactants over entangled, aqueous mucin solutions that mimic the airway surface liquid of the lung. We measure the movement of the formulation by incorporating dyes into the formulation while we measure surface flows of the mucin solution subphase using tracer particles. Surface tension forces and/or Marangoni stresses initiate a convective spreading flow over this theologically complex subphase. As expected, when the concentration of surfactant is reduced until its surface tension is above that of the mucin solution, the convective spreading does not occur. The convective spreading front moves ahead of the drop containing the formulation. Convective spreading ends with the solution confined to a well-defined static area which must be governed by a surface tension balance. Further motion of the spread solution progresses by much slower diffusive processes. Spreading behaviors are qualitatively similar for formulations based on anionic, cationic, or nonionic surfactants, containing either hydrophilic or hydrophobic dyes, on mucin as well as on other entangled aqueous polymer solution subphases. This independence of qualitative spreading behaviors from the chemistry of the surfactant and subphase indicates that there is little chemical interaction between the formulation and the subphase during the spreading process. The spreading and final solution distributions are controlled by capillary and hydrodynamic phenomena and not by specific chemical interactions among the components of the system. It is suggested that capillary forces and Marangoni flows driven by soluble surfactants may thereby enhance the uniformity of drug delivery to diseased lungs.