Expression of a mucociliary-specific epitope in human olfactory epithelium

An olfactory ciliary-specific epitope was localized immunohistochemically in the mucociliary complex of human olfactory epithelium of 12 subjects ranging in age from 16 weeks of gestation to 85 years, including 3 with Alzheimer's disease. Immunoreactivity for olfactory marker protein (OMP) was used to identify olfactory epithelium; OMP immunoreactivity in olfactory receptor neurons in a 16-week old fetus is the earliest time point at which OMP expression has been detected in human gestation. The results suggest a close coupling between the expression of ciliary molecules associated with odorant transduction and the functional maturation of olfactory receptor neurons.