Variability of ciliary ultrastructure in normal dogs

The incidence of abnormal tracheal cilia from each of seven normal healthy dogs was estimated using samples prepared for TEM and SEM from the dorsal, lateral, and ventral aspects of the 3rd, 12th, and 24th tracheal rings. Some samples were demembranated with Triton X-100 and stained with tannic acid to visualize microtubular protofilaments. From each region of each ring of each dog on which TEM was done, 500 transversely sectioned cilia were observed, 27,000 cilia overall. Abnormal numbers of central microtubules and abnormal numbers of peripheral microtubules occurred in all samples in about 2% of all cilia. Compound cilia were consistently observed in samples from the 3rd ring and were not observed in any samples from the 24th ring. Therefore, before abnormal ciliary ultrastructure may be associated with disease, the rate of occurrence must exceed that in appropriate control individuals. Additionally, compound cilia, which have previously been associated with a variety of diseases, obviously occur in normal individuals; however, their observation may be a function of biopsy site selection.