The ciliary activity of the middle ear lining--functional and morphological observation

Since the middle ear lining is an extension and a modification of the respiratory mucosa, it is conceivable that it has a mucociliary system and it plays an important role in clearance of the tympanic cavity. It was already noted in morphological studies that the middle ear lining had ciliated cells. To our knowledge, however, ciliary activity has never been observed directly. In the present paper, the ciliary activity of the middle ear mucosa was investigated directly and quantitatively by the photo-electric method of Ohashi and Nakai. In this work, special reference was made to the frequency of ciliary beating at various sites within the tympanic cavity. Ciliary activity was found to exist in the Eustachian tube and middle ear same as in other respiratory epithelium and this activity by ciliated cells was more active as their location became more distal to the Eustachian tube. Although the present results are preliminary, the techniques used in this study will provide a new avenue of the investigation of pathological middle ear lining.