Wloga, D., Joachimiak, E., Osinka, A., Ahmadi, S., & Majhi, S. (2024). Motile Cilia in Female and Male Reproductive Tracts and Fertility. Cells. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells13231974
Wloga D, Joachimiak E, Osinka A, Ahmadi S, Majhi S. Motile Cilia in Female and Male Reproductive Tracts and Fertility. Cells. 2024. doi:10.3390/cells13231974
Wloga, Dorota, et al. "Motile Cilia in Female and Male Reproductive Tracts and Fertility." Cells, 2024.
Fallopian tube cilia help collect the egg released at ovulation
Cilia that line the fallopian tube help collect the egg after ovulation, a 2024 review of human and animal research reports. About 6 out of 10 women with an inherited cilia disorder had reduced fertility, in studies that recorded it. Cilia in the tube may also help guide sperm; in male mice, losing efferent duct cilia led to clumped sperm.
Key Findings
Ciliated cells make up about 60 to 80% of the lining cells in the fimbria, the tube's open end, and about 30 to 40% in the isthmus.
In lab studies of human tube tissue, follicular fluid raised cilia beat frequency to 6.34 Hz, against 4.2 Hz in culture medium.
Female mice lacking two microRNAs needed to build these cilia were infertile because they couldn't pick up ovulated eggs.
Among women with primary ciliary dyskinesia and fertility data, about 60% had reduced fertility or infertility; CCDC39, CCDC40 and HIDIN mutations coincided with infertility.
Men with primary ciliary dyskinesia from DNAH5 mutations may have no sperm or low counts, yet some are fertile.
Interpretation
This narrative review gathers microscope studies of human tissue, lab cultures, mouse genetics and small groups of patients. The authors report that muscle in the tube wall also moves the egg and embryo, with cilia thought to help. They add that studies of cilia in tubal ectopic pregnancy disagree. Few studies report fertility in women with the inherited disorder, primary ciliary dyskinesia, and the authors note those groups are small.
RRM Context
RRM treats the fallopian tubes as working organs whose health matters for natural conception. The review points to the tube's beating lining as a help in picking up the egg. Its attention to cilia in both the female and male tracts fits RRM's evaluation of both partners.
Our editorial summary of this paper, not the article's abstract.
Abstract
Motile cilia are evolutionarily conserved organelles. In humans, multiciliated cells (MCCs), assembling several hundred motile cilia on their apical surface, are components of the monolayer epithelia lining lower and upper airways, brain ventricles, and parts of the reproductive tracts, the fallopian tube and uterus in females, and efferent ductules in males. The coordinated beating of cilia generates a force that enables a shift of the tubular fluid, particles, or cells along the surface of the ciliated epithelia. Uncoordinated or altered cilia motion or cilia immotility may result in subfertility or even infertility. Here, we summarize the current knowledge regarding the localization and function of MCCs in the human reproductive tracts, discuss how cilia and cilia beating-generated fluid flow directly and indirectly contribute to the processes in these organs, and how lack or improper functioning of cilia influence human fertility.
