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Updated: May 29, 2026

Simple Detection of Primary Cilia by Immunofluorescence
Published on: May 15, 2020
Role for primary cilia as flow detectors in the cardiovascular system
Kim Van der Heiden1, Anastasia D Egorova, Robert E Poelmann
1Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
The cardiovascular system is exposed to biochemical and biomechanical signals. Various sensors for these signals have been described and they contribute to cardiovascular development, maintenance of vessel integrity during adult life, and to pathogenesis. In the past 10years, primary cilia, membrane-covered, rod-like cellular protrusions, were discovered on multiple cell types of the cardiovascular system. Primary cilia are sensory organelles involved in several key (developmental) signaling pathways and in chemo- and mechanosensing on a myriad of cell types. In the embryonic and adult cardiovascular system, they have been demonstrated to function as shear stress sensors on endothelial cells and could act as strain sensors on smooth muscle cells and cardiomyocytes and as chemosensors on fibroblasts. This review will cover their occurrence and elaborate on established and possible functions of primary cilia in the cardiovascular system.
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