Epithelium Lecture Sep 25 Flashcards
What are the 4 types of tissue?
Epithelium
Connective Tissue
Nervous TIssue
Muscle Tissue
Which of the 3 main tissue types is subdivided?
What are the subdivisions?
Connective Tissue:
connective tissue proper
specialized connective tissue: cartilage, bone, blood
What are the 4 main epithelial characteristics
- THey form sheets and/or layers of cells
- They cover surfaces or line cavities
- THere is little intercellular material
- There is a basal lamina present
What germ layer does epithelia come from?
from all three!
What are the 7 functions of epithelia?
- protection
- secretion
- absorption
- excretion
- sensory perception
- sound healing
- barrier formation
What are the two basic rules for classifying epithelium?
- Number of cell layers
(simple, stratified, pseudostratified)
- Shape of the cells AT THE SURFACE!
(squamous, cuboidal, columnar)
What does it mean for an epithelium to be called keratinized?
the top layers have been keratinized - killed
this is the case for stratified squamous cells that make out skin
What are the 6 additional characteristics of an epithelium that should be described (other than number and shape)?
- ciliated?
- keratinized?
- striated? (does it have microvilli?)
- pigmented?
- glandular?
- sensory?
What are the 8 different kinds of epithelium?
- Simple squamous (this is endothelium!!!)
- Simple cuboidal epithelium
- Simple columnar epithelium (this is frequently ciliated or striated)
- Pseudostratified columnar epithelium (frequently ciliated)
- Stratified squamous epithelium (keratinized - skin, unkeritinized - esophagus)
- Stratified cuboidal epithelium (only 2 layers)
- Stratified columnar epithelium (only 2 layers)
- Transitional epithelium (more than one layer thick can be non-distended or distended. think pear shaped)
What is unusual about the surface cells of many transitional epithelium?
the surface cells can be binucleated
Transitional epithelia is only located in ONE area of the body. WHat is it?
internal lining of the urinary tract
Pseudostratified epithelia have what two types of cells?
Tall cells (touch both the basement and apical side)
Short cells (touch only the basement side)
What are three characteristics of the adhesion molecules used in epithelium?
- THey are transmembrane proteins with one or more subunits
- They mediate cell-cell and cell-extraceullar matrix interactions
- They coordinate/communicate extracellular events with intracellular materials
What are the 4 main families of adhesion molecules?
integrins
cadherins
selectins
immunoglobulin superfamily
which family of adhesion molecules mediates cell-matrix interactions?
integrins
which family of adhesion molecules mediates cell-cell interactions?
cadherins
what adhesion molecule family mediates blood cell and endothelial cell adhesion?
Important for immune response
selectins
Describe integrins
- they mediate cell-matrix interactions
- they are transmembrane proteins
- they occur as heterodimersw ith alpha and beta subunits
- 3-4 divalent cations will be bound to the alpha subunit
- They will bind to RGD (arginine, glycine, aspartic acid) sequences found on extracellular matrix molecules, especially fibronectin
What will integrins bind to on the cytosolic side?
They will bind to cytoskeleton-associated proteins that mediate attachment of the integrain domain to cytoskeletal elements like actin or intermediate filaments
What are some characteristics of cadherins?
- Homotpyic, meaning they only bind to identical cadherins from other cells
- they mediate cell-cell adhesion
- they are found at ahderens junctions, including the xonula adherens (belt desmosomes) and regulate desmosomes between adjacent epithelial cells
- they are transmembrane proteins with extracellular and intracellular domains.
5THEY ARE CALCIUM DEPENDENT!!
What do cadherins bind to on the extracellular domain?
What do they bind to on the intracellular domain?
Extracelularly, they bind to other cadherins
Intracellularly, they bind to cytoskeletal associatin proteins that mediate the interaction with the cytosolic domain and the cytoskeleon (like actin or microfilament)
Describe desmosomes.
What adhesion molecules do desmosomes use?
General AND specific
Desmosomes are attachments devices seen everywhere in epithelia.
cadherins will bind to other cadherins on other cells
including desmogleins and desmocollins
A thick, electron rich placque builds up on either side of the desmosome - this can be seen with an electron microscope
What are tight junctions? WHere are they in epithelia?
Tight junctions are occluding junctions (also called zonula occludens)
They are extremely tight connections between the apical ends of epithelial cells.
Think the plastic rink holding hexagonal coke cans together.
They have ridges that basically form a belt around the top. THe more ridges there are, the stronger the seal
WHat adhesion proteins are used in tight junctions?
Occludins and Cloudins
they are transmembrane adhesive proteins whose extracellular domains interact with the extracellular domains of the adhesion molecules on adjacent cell membranes
What two things do tight junctions do for cells? aka what are the effects of having a tight junction?
- materials being transported across an epithelium must pass through the epithelial cells rather than between them
- Plasma membrane proteins are restriction to particular regions of the cell. i.e. apical proteins can’t diffuse down and become lateral or basal membrane proteins