Figure 5. Swollen knobs and a decreased number of cilia are detected in mutant MKS3 mutant rat olfactory epithelium.

Representative olfactory epithelium images from normal (A, B) and MKS3 mutant (C, D) rats. Mutant sections showed enlarged OSN knobs, some of which exhibited irregular shapes (e.g., to the left in C), with knobs frequently appearing to be “detached” from the OE surface. At this magnification, coronally sectioned OSN cilia could be distinguished from microvilli as a result of their different sizes. Control sections showed multiple easily identifiable cilia (arrowheads, only shown in A), while mutant sections showed a decreased number (arrowheads in D; none could be recognized in C). Scale bar  = 1 µm: shown in (D) for A–D.