Visualizing Primary Cilia in Pancreatic Islets

Primary cilia are cell-surface organelles that mediate sensation. Immunofluorescence imaging is the most common method to visualize cilia, where results largely depend on antibody quality. We present our approach to cilia imaging using antibodies and biosensors, which reveal cilia morphology and distribution in islet cells and their roles in hormone regulation and paracrine crosstalk. Some of our recent findings include the existence of motile primary cilia, described in Cho et al 2022, which sheds new light on the mechanism of insulin secretion defects in human ciliopathies and type 2 diabetes.