Abstract
Primary cilia, thin hair-like structures protruding from the apical surface of most mammalian cells, have gained the attention of many researchers over the past decade. Primary cilia are microtubule-filled sensory organelles that are enclosed within the ciliary membrane. They originate at the cell surface from the mother centriole that becomes the mature basal body. In this review, we will discuss recent literatures on the roles of cilia as sophisticated sensory organelles. With particular emphasis on vascular endothelia and renal epithelia, the mechanosensory role of cilia in sensing fluid shear stress will be discussed. Also highlighted is the ciliary involvement in cell cycle regulation, development, cell signaling and cancer. Finally, primary cilia-related disorders will be briefly described.
Highlights
Despite their discovery over a century ago, primary non-motile cilia were thought to be vestigial organelles inherited from an ancestor whose cells had motile flagella, and that the flagella or cilia served no purpose
Aguiari et al [57] showed that depletion of endogenous polycystin-1 leads to an increase in seruminduced calcium oscillations and cell cycle progression, providing a molecular link between calcium homeostasis and cellular proliferation through a ciliary mechanism
Cultured ciliated endothelial cells from the embryonic heart and non-ciliated cells from the arteries demonstrated that when subjected to fluid shear stress, non-ciliated cells showed less induction of the shear marker Kruppel-Like Factor-2 (KLF2) compared to ciliated cells
Summary
Despite their discovery over a century ago, primary non-motile cilia were thought to be vestigial organelles inherited from an ancestor whose cells had motile flagella, and that the flagella or cilia served no purpose. Assembled by nine peripheral microtubule doublets and two central single microtubules in addition to other associated structures such as an inner and outer dynein arms, radial spokes and nexin links An example for this can be found in the Chlamydomonas flagellum, which is a motile organelle with 9+2 axoneme. The axonemes with nine peripheral doublets and attached dynein arms have dynein heavy chains responsible for ciliary movement. The matrix constitutes of the fluid material between the ciliary membrane and the axoneme where the IFT machinery is located to assemble and maintain the cilia or flagella; 3) the axoneme, a tubulin-based structure that plays essential roles for motor proteins to transport ciliary components to the cilia. The most daunting tasks are to confirm the functions of these proteins
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