Histology: Epithelium Flashcards
What is epithelium?
the thin tissue forming the outer layer of a body’s surface and lining the alimentary canal (esphogous) and other hollow structures.
What does the epithelium do? (5)
1) keeps things in (tissue& organ boundary)
2) keeps things out (barrier from disease)
3) directs traffic (ducts/vessels)
4) enable transport across gradients
5) secrete stuff (glands)
components of epithelia?
surface, glandular, & special epithelia
components of connective tissue?
- connective tissue proper
- tissues and blood
- cartilage & bone
components of muscular tissues?
-smooth, skeletal, & cardiac
components nervous tissues?
- autonomic, motor, central
how are epithelial cells nourished?
- by diffusion from capillaries in underlying connective tissue
Why are some epithelial cells more or less active than others?
- cells closets to the source of nutrients (capillaries) get most nutrients, more active, divide more to give rise to the upper cell layer
- activity decreases as move away from capillary, leading to differentiation in cell types and death if TOO far away
how are epithelia cells identified/ defined?
-sheet of cells sitting on a basement membrane
The basement membrane?
1) provides solid support & integrity so epithelia cells don’t shift relative to eachother
2) gives cells something to attach to
3) most components made by epithelial cells themself
4) help define polarity of epithelium ( top vs bottom)
Basement membrane vs apical membrane?
- basement membrane= bottom of cell (leads to tissue/ organ)
- apical membrane = top surface of epithelia (has microvilli, borders lumen)
-diff functions & specializations define them
How does epithelial sheet have polarity?
-because has an inside (basolateral) vs outside-lumenal (apical)
What does polarity provide/do?
1) provides barrier to hold things in/keep things out
2) surface to organize differentiated structures
3) ability for transport down tubes
4) boundary for directed movement (selective permeability) to ions, molecules etc
Apical boundary specializations?
- has microvilli that define apical/lumenal space, absorb nutrients from capillaries
- Junctional complexes between neighboring epithelial sites
Basal membrane specializations?
1) transport functions (selectively permeable. membrane & transport proteins)
2) functions as barrier
Two components of the basement membrane? Why is distinction important?
- the basal lamina
- reticular fibers
*distinction between basal lamina and membrane is important for function & structure of lungs & kidneys
What is the basal lateral lamina?
- an ordered combo of type IV collagen, proteoglycans, & glycoproteins
- acts as size & charge filter to regulate access to the epithelium
- thickness & properties vary according to the tissue
What are reticular fibers?
- type III collagen wrapped in glycoprotein coat
- serve to anchor the basal lamina to the underlying general connective tissue
- provide integrity to epithelial sheets
Anchorage of cells to the basal lamina?
- done via hemidesmosomes
interactions between transmembrane protein of the cell & basal lamina provide?
1) Stimuli for polarization & differentiation of epithelial
2) regulation of epithelial proliferation
Simple epithelia?
when only one layer of cells sits on the basement membrane
- what most tissue is composed of
1) simple squamous
2) simple cuboidal
3) simple columnar
4) Pseudostratifed columnar
Simple squamous epithelia?
-cells look like flat, fried eggs
Most common= lining blood vessels (endothelial cells)
Simple cuboidal epithelia?
-cells look like cubes
-nucleus in center
-if not squamous or columnar…are cuboidal
Most common= line ducts since help move secretions; not usually secretory cells
Simple cuboidal epithelia?
-cells look like cubes
-nucleus in center
-if not squamous or columnar…are cuboidal
Most common= line ducts since help move secretions; not usually secretory cells
Pseudostratified columnar?
-looks stratified, but all cells sit on the basement membrane so NOT stratified
-nucleus at diff levels
Most common: airway epithelium
stratified epithelia?
- when have more than 1 layer of cells siting on basement membrane
- epithelium is defined by shape of cells in TOP layer
- occurs when epithelial membrane are actively diving, old cells move up as new cells are formed
- so has active layer (on basement) and inactive layer (apical side)
transitional-stretched epithelia?
-stratified epithelia
-looks like stratified squamous, but cells are bi-nucleated and surface is very pink
-tissue able to handle stretch while maintaining barrier function & integrity
Most common: bladder