Abstract
Electron microscopy was employed to study the events of ciliogenesis in the tracheal ciliated cells in rat, mice and human. Phosphotungstic acid staining and histochemical technique for adenosine triphosphatase were also employed to get some information of tracheal ciliated cells.
Our electron microscopic observations confirm the classical histologist's findings that the tracheal cells formed their cilia after the centrioles subdivided to form basal bodies which ascend to the upper cell surface where cilia then grew. Six month human fetus had still immature ciliated cells in it's tracheal mucosa.
Tracheal cilia microtubules and basal bodies were equally well stained with PTA suggesting they were formed by basic amino acid.
ATP-ase, an enzyme of active fluid transport across cell membranes, were demonstrated in the cell membrane of the ciliated cells. It is imagined that the ATP-ase active microvilli on the cell surface might have function of active fluid transport.
