Interaction between mucociliary transport and the ciliary beat of chicken nasal mucosa.

We studied the relationship between the mucociliary transport time and the ciliary beat frequency in the chicken nares following water deprivation and topical administrations of cocaine, atropine, and Newcastle disease virus (NDV). Dehydration produced progressive decelerations of mucociliary flow but not ciliary beat frequency. In vivo 5% cocaine resulted in decreased sinus mucociliary transport time, while application of 20% cocaine to in vitro tissues caused ciliary paralysis within 5 min. Topical atropine was seen to affect both mucociliary flow and the ciliary beat frequency. NDV infection induced deceleration of the turbinate clearance time after 72 h, but did not change ciliary beat frequency. By day 12, mucociliary flow remained unchanged although ciliary beat frequency decreased significantly. Our results support the general concept that mucus is more important than are the cilia in normal nasal mucociliary function.