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Mucociliary clearance
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Mucociliary clearance is the way the airway cleans itself. Both the cleaning and the movement of respiratory secretions depend on the cilia beating in a coordinated way.
Cilia are hairlike structures that project from the surface of the cell, and there are not just a few of them: each cell of the respiratory epithelium, the layer that lines the air passages from the inside, carries hundreds. It is an escalator made of hairs that pushes mucus toward the exit.
They are not only in the lung. They also line the paranasal sinuses, the middle ear, the reproductive tract and the nasopharynx, which is the upper part of the throat behind the nose. When ciliary movement is disrupted, mucociliary clearance fails and chronic infections of the ear, sinuses and lung follow.
In brief
Mucociliary clearance is how the airway cleans itself, and it depends on the coordinated beating of the cilia.
An escalator made of hairs that pushes mucus toward the exit.
Cilia are hairlike structures on the cell surface, and every respiratory epithelial cell carries hundreds of them.
Cilia are also found in the nasopharynx, the paranasal sinuses and the middle ear; if their movement is disrupted, clearance fails and chronic otosinopulmonary infections follow.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingPrimary Ciliary Dysfunction, StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
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