Chapter 2: Epithelium
Keywords
Please familiarize yourself with these keywords before you start reading the chapter:
- Apical
- The surface of a cell that faces a lumen or an outside area.
- Basolateral
- The surfaces of a cell that faces away from a lumen or outside area.
- Cilia
- A organelle and cell modification that manifests as a membrane projection capable of movement.
- Cornification
- A layer of dead cells filled with keratin that form a protective barrier over a layer of cells. Seen with stratified squamous epithelium.
- Desmosomes
- A cell modification that is responsible a cell to cell adhesion resistant to shearing forces to the epithelial layer.
- Endothelium
- A type of simple squamous epithelium that lines in inside of vascular structures.
- Epithelium
- A basic tissue type that typically lines a surface (cavity, lumen or outside surface) or forms glands. plural, epithelia; adjective, epithelial
- Hemidesmosomes
- A cell modification that is responsible for the adhesion of a cell to extracellular matrix.
- Keratin
- A structural protein and intermediate filament that provides a tough protective quality to some epithelial cell types. Seen with cornified or keratinized epithelium.
- Microvilli
- A cell modification that manifests as a membrane projection and increases the surface area of a cell.
- Pseudostratified
- A type of columnar epithelium in which the nuclei are arranged in different levels in the cell layer.
- Simple
- An unilayered arrangement of epithelial cells.
- Stratified
- A multilayered arrangement of epithelial cells.
- Tight junctions
- A cell modification that is responsible for cell to cell adhesion.
- Urothelium
- A unique type of stratified epithelium capable of stretching that lines a majority of the urinary tract.
