Observation du Mouvement ciliaire des cellules épithéliales plexus choroïde<em> Ex Vivo</em

Cilia are hair-like projections on the surface of most vertebrate cells, which have attracted attention by medical researchers because of a class of diseases termed ciliopathies^2–4. Despite the ubiquitous expression of the organelle, a wide variety of ciliary functions have been reported, including motility and biosensing. For example, motile cilia on the mucoepithelial surface transport mucus⁵ and epithelial debris to the outlet of tracts, thereby preventing disease by clearing the surface of epithelia. Moreover, during early developmental periods and embryonic stages, cilia regulate the proliferation of stem cells⁶, and are involved in the determination of left–right asymmetry of the vertebrate body⁷.

Choroid plexus epithelial cells (CPECs) are derivatives of neuroepithelial cells that cover the surface of the choroid plexus tissue in the brain, which play important roles in maintaining homeostasis of the intracranial environment by production of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). It has been previously demonstrated that CPECs have multiple non-motile cilia that regulate the production of CSF through G-protein-coupled receptors that are specifically concentrated on the cilia⁸. Although these cilia had been regarded as quiescent non-motile cilia, it was discovered that some CPEC cilia exhibit transient motility during the neonatal period¹. This finding was quite important because it revealed that so-called non-motile cilia are not necessarily immotile from the beginning of development and might display transient motility during specific time windows, possibly in response to specific physiological demands and functions⁹. To precisely describe the motile nature of CPEC cilia, it is necessary to develop an ex vivo observation system that encompasses analysis of the kinetic profiles unique to CPEC cilia.

With respect to motility, although several technical reports have described observations of the motile cilia of the tracheal epithelium^5,10, motile single-cell flagella¹¹, so-called conventional motile cilia¹², and nodal cilia¹³, detailed analytical methods applicable to relatively undulated structures such as the choroid plexus have not been well documented so far. Moreover, a high time resolution is required to analyze the ciliary movement of CPECs, in which expensive high-speed cameras are indispensable. To circumvent this necessity and simplify monitoring the ciliary motility of various cell types, a low cost, high-speed camera has been introduced, and an easily accessible and convenient method to record the motility of motile cilia, especially to describe the speed and pattern of motion of each cilium, has been developed¹. Moreover, original image analysis software “TI Workbench” has been used here to facilitate detailed analysis of motility. Collectively, this method provides a new concise strategy to analyze ciliary motion together with correlative scanning electron microscopy (SEM), which can be adopted in a wide range of cilium research.