Pharyngeal ciliary activity in guinea pigs with otitis media

Abstract

The function of cilia present in the tubotympanum plays an important role in the pathogenesis and chronicity of otitis media with effusion (OME). We used a photoelectric method to examine the ciliary activity in the eustachian tube, in the central pharynx, as well as the nasal cavity of normal animals and animals with otitis media. In normal animals, the ciliary activity in the nasal cavity was not different from that in the eustachian tube. In some animals with otitis media, however, there was a significant difference between the ciliary activity in the nasal cavity and that in the eustachian tube. On the other hand, no significant differences were recognized in any given group of animals examined between the level of the ciliary activity in the central pharynx and that in the eustachian tube. Our findings show that the function of the cilia present in the pharynx is a valid index of that in the eustachian tube. Our study further indicates that it may be possible to clinically assess the ciliary activity in the pharyngeal mucosa biopsied from patients with OME to determine objectively the effects of medical treatments of the disease.

Scintigraphic evaluation of nasal mucociliary activity in unilateral chronic otitis media

“…It has been shown that the mucociliary epithelium of the nasal cavity, eustachian tube and middle ear are similar in nature. Ohashi et al 15 showed that quantitative assessment of mucociliary activity present in tubatympanium requires biopsy materials of the eustachian mucosa, and this may result in further narrowing of the tubal lumen due to postoperative scarring, and all these lead to impairment of mucociliary activity which has already been decreased.…”

Effect of the Radioprotector WR2721 on Irradiation-Induced Injury to Ciliated Cells of Eustachian Tube

“…This included increased variation in cell outlines, nuclear placement and shape, and cell stratification. 8 Dye transport times for the pretreated experimental group at 1 week were similar to those of the normal controls, indicating no change in ciliary motility. At 2 weeks, TEM of the ET from the control group demonstrated areas of severe cellular disorganization, mosaiclike ciliated epithelium, severe vacuolization, areas of autophagocytosis, loss of nuclear polarity, increased cellular rounding with swelling of the organelles, degeneration of goblet cells, and increased numbers of nonciliated epithelial cells (Fig 3B,C).…”

Effect of Bacterial Endotoxin and Middle Ear Effusion on Ciliary Activity: Implications for Otitis Media

“…Adenoidal cilia were chosen as a model to study ciliary activity because of their close anatomical relationship to eustachian tube cilia and the fact that nasopharyngeal ciliary activity has been shown to correlate closely with that of middle ear cilia in animals. 11 Furthermore, taking biopsy specimens of middle ear mucosa potentially carries a risk of damage to the middle ear, including stenosis of the eustachian tube, and the small pieces of tissue yielded are not easily studied for any significant length of time.…”