Correlation between the sensitivity of the ciliary beat frequency of human adenoid tissue and chicken embryo tracheas for some drugs.

The effects of benzalkonium chloride, chlorbutol,xylometazoline and naphazoline on the ciliary beat frequency of human adenoids and chicken embryo tracheas have been determined and compared. Chlorbutol 0.5% appeared to arrest ciliary motion in both tissues within 5 minutes. Rinsing with Locke Ringer solution (LR) restored the ciliary motion almost completely in both cases. Benzalkonium chloride 0.006% +EDTA 0.1% decreased the ciliary beat frequency 35% for the human tissues and 50% for the chicken tissues after a contact of 20 minutes. In both cases the frequency hardly changed after rinsing with LR. Naphazoline nitrate 0.1% and xylometazoline HCl 0.05% have reversible effects on the ciliary beat frequency of both human adenoids and chicken embryo tracheas. Cilia of human adenoids appeared to be more sensitive for xylometazoline than for naphazoline; whereas cilia of chicken embryo tracheas were more affected by naphazoline than by xylometazoline. The results with human adenoids and chicken embryo tracheas show a correlation (correlation coeff. = 0.82, p less than 0.005). In the initial response the differences in sensitivity to preservatives and drugs were in many cases statistically significant, but the final effects were similar.