Ultrastructural studies of cilia formation during thyroid gland differentiation in grass snake embryos

Abstract The process of ciliogenesis that accompanies the differentiation of the thyroid gland in grass snake Natrix natrix L. embryos was studied ultrastructurally. Based on this study, it can be concluded that the ciliogenesis occurred in two waves and that new centrioles duplicated via centriolar pathways. The first wave of ciliogenesis started in the post-mitotic thyrocytes before their polarisation. It ended approximately halfway through the developmental period. The second wave of ciliogenesis took place after the polarization of thyrocytes and before the resting phase of the embryonic thyroid. This wave of ciliogenesis stopped shortly before hatching when fully differentiated thyrocytes restarted their activity. During the first half of thyroid differentiation, the cilia were formed “intracellularly” but during the second half, they differentiated “extracellularly” In the differentiating thyrocytes one cilium per cell was found; however, it could not be excluded that more than one cilium per cell may be formed. These cilia lacked central fibres and therefore they had a 9 + 0 formula that suggested that they were immotile.