XXIII Ultrastructure of Tracheal Cilia and Cells during Regeneration

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Abstract
Electron microscopy was employed to study the events that follow mechanical injury to tracheal epithelium in the rabbit. Classical histologists had decided that the cells of the trachea formed their cilia after the centrioles subdivided to form basal bodies which ascended to the upper cell surface where cilia then grew. Immediately after overlying cells were removed, the folded cell processes of remaining cells straightened to become microvilli. During succeeding days hundreds of basal bodies appeared deep in the cytoplasm near the nucleus. They each had a close ultrastructural resemblance to centrioles. Homogeneous cilia formed at the upper surface of the tracheal cells as the basal bodies ascended and oriented themselves at right angles to the surface. Virus particles were recognized in one specimen.