A method for maintaining, in vitro, TV-monitoring and counting ciliary beat frequency of samples from human ciliated respiratory epithelium brushing.

"Mucociliary clearance", from a clinical point of view, is one of the most important defense mechanisms of the respiratory mucosa. Clinicians, pneumologists and pharmacologists are greatly interested in methods investigating the cilia, considered the biological engine that continuously moves the physiological and/or pathological bronchial mucous secretions. This paper describes a method for the study of ciliary activity in man. By a simple brushing technique it is possible to obtain samples of ciliated respiratory epithelium, and the ciliary beat can be observed immediately by microscopy (Nomarsky differential interference contrast) in a small thermostatic perfusion chamber. The ciliary image is visualized on a TV monitor by means of a TV camera. Using a new type of digital counter with a phototransistor probe, the beat rate of a single cilium can be measured directly by the monitor screen under physiological or pathological conditions or under drug perfusion.