Jing Hughes, an endocrinologist at Washington University in St. Louis, was working late in the lab recently, imaging cilia in mouse pancreatic beta cells. These cilia, which are tiny hairlike organelles, were thought to be static sensors that help the pancreas manage blood glucose levels, but nonmotile cilia in general are poorly characterized in comparison with their wiggly, moving counterparts. So, Hughes’ goal was to observe and record the distribution of these “primary” cilia within the organ’s well-defined clumps of cells, called islets. Then she saw one of them move.
“I didn’t believe it at first,” says Hughes. She had stayed late working on her microscopy, she explains, so “I thought I was just tired. These things were not supposed to move.”
I thought I was just tired. These things were not supposed to move.
Intrigued, Hughes and colleagues imaged pancreatic cilia under many different conditions, observing the same motion ...
