The establishment of rotational polarity in the airway and ependymal cilia: analysis with a novel cilium motility mutant mouse

Abstract

The airway is covered by multicilia that beat in a metachronous manner toward the mouth to eliminate debris and infectious particles. Coordinated one-directional beating is an essential feature of multicilia in the airway to guarantee proper mucociliary clearance. Defects in ciliary motility lead to primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD), with major symptoms including bronchitis and other chronic respiratory diseases. Recent work suggested that ciliary motility and planar polarity are required in the process of ciliary alignment that produces coordinated beating. However, the extent to which cilia motility is involved in this process in mammals has not yet been fully clarified. Here, to address the role of ciliary motility in the process of coordinated ciliary alignment, we analyzed Kintoun mice mutants (Ktu(-/-)). Ktu(-/-) exhibited typical phenotypes of PCD with complete loss of ciliary motility in trachea and another ciliated tissue, the brain ependyma. Immunohistochemistry using antibodies against axonemal dynein confirmed the loss of multiple axonemal dynein components in mutant cilia. Observation of cilia orientation based on basal foot directions revealed that ciliary motility was not required in the alignment of airway cilia, whereas a strong requirement was observed in brain ependymal cells. Thus we conclude that the involvement of ciliary motility in the establishment of coordinated ciliary alignment varies among tissues.