Mucociliary transport system

This experiment was conducted on two ovine tracheal samples exposed at Optimal Humidity (left) and the other at 90% relative humidity (right) for 15 minutes. As the clip starts, tiny beating cilia are flickering in the background. Then, debris in the mucus of the right image becomes stationary. The dark spots moving quickly across the left image showed debris being cleared by effective mucociliary transport. Finally, after an hour at the lower humidity, the mucosa has completely dried out.