Intravital imaging reveals glucose-dependent cilia movement in pancreatic islets in vivo

Pancreatic islet cells harbor primary cilia, small sensory organelles that detect environmental changes to regulate hormone secretion and intercellular communication. While the sensory and signaling capacity of primary cilia are well-appreciated, it is less recognized that these organelles also possess active motility, including in dense multicellular tissues such as the pancreatic islet. In this manuscript, we use transgenic cilia reporter mice and an intravital imaging approach to quantitate primary cilia dynamics as it occurs in live mouse pancreatic islets. We validate this imaging workflow as suitable for studying islet cilia motion in real time in vivo and demonstrate that glucose stimulation corresponds to a change in cilia motility, which may be a physiologic measure of nutrient-dependent fluxes in islet cell function.