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In the present work we report that increasing the viscosity of the medium caused not only a decrease in the ciliary beat frequency but also changes in the metachrony and correlation between cilia. The study was performed using double and triple simultaneous photoelectric measurements on cultured ciliary cells from the frog esophagus in the viscosity range of 1–2,000 cp. We observed that increasing the viscosity intensified the fluctuations in all the measured parameters. Ciliary beat frequency decreased moderately. Even at quite high viscosities (circa 2000 cp.), cilia were still active with beating frequencies of 3–5 Hz. In addition, the degree of correlation between cilia parallel to the effective stroke direction (ESD) decreased, while that perpendicular to the ESD at a low range of viscosities remained unchanged and even increased at high viscosities.

Medium viscosities in the range of 30–1,500 cp. altered the …