Ultrastructural abnormalities of the cilia in human nasal epithelia

Nasal mucosal cilia were observed with electron microscope in 14 patients with immotile cilia syndrome (ICS), 9 with nasal papilloma (NP), 23 with sinobronchial syndrome (SB), 2 with sinusitis combined with dextrocardia (SC), 1 with Kartagener's syndrome (KS), and 5 normal controls (C). Abnormalities such as complex cilia, cilia with abnormal axonemes and cilia with randomly oriented central microtubules were frequently found in the groups of ICS (8.1%) and NP (10.4%) while less in other groups: SB (4.9%), SC (5.3%), KS (4.7%) and C (3.9%). The percentage of cilia with defective dynein arms (DA) was the highest in the ICS group (94.0%), followed by the groups of SC (53.7%), SB (47.5%), NP (41.2%), C (35.8%) and KS (33.3%). The ICS group was found to be the largest in the number of defective DA per a cilium (4.1), followed by the groups of NP (1.0), SB (0.6), SC (0.7), KS (0.4) and C (0.4). Increased rates of defective DA were also recognized in cilia of tracheal mucosa and flagella of sperm in 7 patients with ICS examined. In conclusion, neither abnormal cilia nor defective DA of cilia are specific findings for ICS. However, when we observe these findings in high percentage in nasal mucosa as well as in other organs, we may define this condition as ICS.