Luminal fluid tonicity regulates airway ciliary beating by altering membrane stretch and intracellular calcium

The coordinated, directional beating of airway cilia drives airway mucociliary clearance. Here we explore the hypothesis that airway surface liquid osmolarity is a key regulator of ciliary beating. Cilia in freshly isolated human and murine airways visualized with streaming video‐microscopy exhibited a reciprocal dependence on a physiological range of luminal fluid osmolarities, across the entire range of ciliary activity (0–20 beats per sec)....