Figure 1.

Primary cilia structure. The axonemes of primary cilia are anchored on the basal body and encapsulated within the ciliary membrane. The ciliary membrane is one continuous extension of the plasma membrane. The basal body is composed of the mother and the daughter centrioles, as well as some transition fibers that anchor the basal body to the cell membrane. The ciliary membrane houses specific membrane and protein receptors, all of which facilitate proper cilia signaling (left panel). Primary cilia that are found on vascular endothelial cells are identifiable by an immunofluorescence technique with antibody against acetylated α-tubulin (green) labeling primary cilia, and pericentrin (red) labeling the centriole or basal body. The nucleus is counterstained with DAPI (blue) to label DNA (right panel). Left panel is adopted with permission from ref. [27].