Brains and Airways

Your lungs are lined with cells coated with tiny hairs, known as cilia. They beat with a whip-like motion, propelling moisturising mucus around the airways. Cilia are also found on cells in other fluid-filled spaces, such as cavities in the brain known as ventricles and the fallopian tubes in the female reproductive system. Faulty cilia are implicated in several human lung diseases, including cystic fibrosis and asthma. And people with a disease called primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) suffer from excessive fluid in the brain, lung problems and infertility. The image on the left shows cells lining a brain ventricle in a healthy mouse, with the delicate cilia highlighted in green. The ventricle cells on the right are from an animal lacking a gene that makes a protein called CEP164. These mice have many of the same problems as people with PCD, suggesting that this gene is involved in the condition.

Written by Kat Arney

Kat Arney

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Dr Kat Arney is an award-winning science writer, broadcaster and public speaker, and is the founder and Creative Director of First Create The Media.

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• Image from work by Saul S. Siller and colleagues
• Medical Scientist Training Program, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in PLOS Genetics, December 2017