Although we often think of flagella and cilia in single-celled organisms, some human cells also have these structures. What would happen if all of the cilia in your body stopped beating?

Question

Reese Fitzpatrick

Biology

19 June, 17:53

Although we often think of flagella and cilia in single-celled organisms, some human cells also have these structures. What would happen if all of the cilia in your body stopped beating?

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Myles Blevins · Answer 1

Hair cells play an important role for the human body as they are closely linked to our vital systems, such as the respiratory and nervous systems.

If the hair cells in our respiratory system stopped beating, we would no longer have mucus production that is extremely important for particle and microorganism retention, which could trigger a lung infection.

Hair cells are also critical to our hearing-related nervous system. For example, our inner ear (cochlea) is composed of a fluid and hair cells extremely sensitive to vibration. Hair cells are hair-like and move when stimulated by sound vibrations, sending this information to our brains. Therefore, without the movement of these cells, our brain does not receive this sound information.

So we can say that if all the hair cells in our body stop, we could develop serious health problems that could lead to death.