Endothelin increases the ciliary beat frequency of ovine airway epithelium via its interaction with endothelin a receptors.

Ovine airway epithelial explants, cultured at an air-liquid interface, were used to determine whether endothelin (ET-1) acts via ET(A)- or ET(B)-receptors to increase ciliary beat frequency (CBF). Further, the role of prostanoids and nitric oxide (NO) downstream of receptor activation was explored. CBF was measured using an image analysis system with a sampling rate of 224 frames s(-1).