Transmission electron microscope observation of epithelial cells with single cilia in intrahepatic biliary ductules of bats.

Cells with long single cilia arising from basal bodies in the apical cytoplasm were occasionally revealed in the bile ductular epithelia of bats (Miniopterus schreibersi (Kuhl), Myotis macroductylus (Temminck) and Rhinolophus cornutus (Temminck)). The basal body (distal centriole) was associated witha proximal centriole, so the basal structure was of "two centriole type." In cross sections of the long tapering cilia the arrangement of cilary microtubules was determined. In the most proximal portion of the cilia doublet microtubules were arranged in the 9+0 pattern, while in more distal portions alteration and diminution of the doublet fibers occurred, splitting entirely into single microtubuli which were most frequently rearranged in the 6+1 or 7+1 pattern. The occurrence of the 9+0 fiber pattern and the basal structure of "two centriole type" suggested that the biliary ductular cilia might be sensory or chemoreceptive in nature and not motile. Similar cilia are expected to be found distributed widely in the epithelia of excretory ductal system of large exocrine glands of vertebrate species.