Mucociliary clearance on the surface of the tracheal lumen is an important component of lung defense against dust mites, viruses. Fluid on the surface of the tracheal lumen flows toward mouth as a result of effective ciliary motion. However, the axonemal structure and the mechanisms by which discretely distributed ciliary cells generate directional flow have been unknown. In order to understand the molecular mechanisms of the ciliary motion, Ueno et al. analyzed the axonemal structure of respiratory cilia by cryo-electron tomography and image processing. Interestingly, respiratory cilia have the asymmetric structure, suggesting that they generates overall directional flow with the asymmetric ciliary motion on sparsely distributed ciliated cells.

 The research result will be published in Nanomedicine -Nanotechnology, Biology, and Medicine. The paper's title is "Mouse respiratory cilia with the asymmetric axonemal structure on sparsely distributed ciliary cells can generate overall directional flow".

More information (Japanese)

[Contact]

Assistant Professor Hironori Ueno

International Advanced Research and Education Organization, Tohoku University

Address: 6-6-11 Aoba Aramaki Aoba-ku Sendai, Miyagi, 980-8579, Japan

Phone: +81-22-714-8514 Fax: +81-22-795-6959

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