近日，美国南加州大学的Eva Kanso&Janna C. Nawroth及其研究团队取得一项新进展。经过不懈努力，他们证实流动物理指导纤毛器官的形态。相关研究成果已于2024年7月29日在国际知名学术期刊《自然—物理学》上发表。

该研究团队证实了两个关键结构参数——管腔直径和纤毛与管腔的比例——能够将观察到的管道多样性整合为一个连续的光谱，这一发现将地毯式设计与所有动物门中的火焰式设计联系起来。通过应用统一的流体模型，研究人员揭示了地毯式和火焰式设计分别代表了流量和压力产生之间的不同权衡。他们进一步提出，纤毛器官设计的趋同演化是遵循功能限制而非系统发育距离的结果，并为合成纤毛泵的设计提供了指导原则。

据悉，动物体内有一类至关重要的器官，它们通过运动纤毛的协调跳动来泵送腔内液体，这类器官在动物生理中扮演着不可或缺的角色。人的呼吸道、脑室和生殖道便属于此类器官。尽管动物界中的纤毛组织和导管形态千差万别，但导管通常可归类为地毯式或火焰式设计。然而，这两种不同设计背后的原因以及它们与流体泵送之间的具体关系，目前尚不完全清楚。

附：英文原文

Title: Flow physics guides morphology of ciliated organs

Author: Ling, Feng, Essock-Burns, Tara, McFall-Ngai, Margaret, Katija, Kakani, Nawroth, Janna C., Kanso, Eva

Issue&Volume: 2024-07-29

Abstract: Organs that pump luminal fluids by the coordinated beat of motile cilia are integral to animal physiology. Such organs include the human airways, brain ventricles and reproductive tracts. Although cilia organization and duct morphology vary drastically in the animal kingdom, ducts are typically classified as carpet or flame designs. The reason behind the appearance of these two different designs and how they relate to fluid pumping remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate that two structural parameters—lumen diameter and cilia-to-lumen ratio—organize the observed duct diversity into a continuous spectrum that connects carpets to flames across all animal phyla. Using a unified fluid model, we show that carpets and flames represent trade-offs between flow rate and pressure generation. We propose that the convergence of ciliated organ designs follows functional constraints rather than phylogenetic distance and offer guiding design principles for synthetic ciliary pumps.

DOI: 10.1038/s41567-024-02591-0

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-024-02591-0