Measuring Biophysical Properties of Cilia Motility from Mammalian Tissues via Quantitative Video Analysis Methods

Ciliated epithelia are common in various human organs, indeed across many species, and their physiological functions are vital. A number of diseases, of genetic, degenerative, or infectious nature, compromise motile cilia function and lead to severe downstream consequences. Culture of ciliated tissues is a common research approach. We focus here on the video microscopy and analysis pipelines developed over the last few years to phenotype ciliary beating in lung cells, specifically to extract: cilia coverage; ciliary beat frequency distributions; the scale for ciliary dynamical coordination; and cilia beat waveform.