Ciliated cultured dermal fibroblasts in a patient with hyperornithinemia, hyperammonemia and homocitrullinuria (HHH) syndrome.

Hyperornithinemia, hyperammonemia and homocitrullinuria (HHH)-syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive disorder of the urea cycle, probably caused by a defect in ornithine transport across the hepatic inner mitochondrial membrane. Single rudimentary cilia were present in approximately ten percent of post-divisional or dividing fibroblasts cultured from the skin of a patient with the HHH-syndrome, whereas no such organelles were observed in dermal fibroblasts cultured from normal controls. Since single rudimentary ("primary," "oligo," "solitary") cilia have been observed in a variety of cells in animals and men but the stimuli for their formation and their significance remain controversial, a brief report on their presence in the as yet unreported condition (HHH-syndrome) was considered of interest; hopefully, it might contribute to the ultimate unravelling of some of the unresolved problems. It is of note that unlike the author's previous findings of these unusual organelles in cells affected by a pathological process (atherosclerosis), the rudimentary cilia were observed in the present instance in dividing or postdivisional cells. The implications of these (and other) observations must await further work.