EPITHELIAL

TISSUE
¿QUÉ ES Y CARACTERÍSTICAS?
Epithelium is an avascular tissue composed of cells that cover the exterior body surfaces and line internal
closed cavities and body tubes that communicate with the exterior. Epithelium also forms the secretory portion
of glands and their ducts. In addition, specialized epithelial cells function as receptors for the special senses.

The cells that make up epithelium have three principal characteristics:

• They are closely apposed and adhere to one another by means of specific cell-to-cell adhesion molecules that
form specialized cell junctions.
• They exhibit functional and morphologic polarity. It have different functions are associated with three
distinct morphologic surface domains: a free surface or apical domain, a lateral domain, and a basal domain.
• Their basal surface is attached to an underlying basement membrane.
FUNCIONES
The epithelia have one or more functions, depending on the cellular activity:

• Secretion: as in the columnar epithelium of the stomach and the gastric glands;
• Absorption: as in the columnar epithelium of the intestines and proximal convoluted tubules in the kidney.
• Transportation: as in the transport of materials or cells along the surface of an epithelium propelled by
motile cilia or in the transport of materials across an epithelium to and from the connective tissue.
• Mechanical protection: as in the stratified squamous epithelium of the skin (epidermis) and the transitional
epithelium of the urinary bladder.
• Receptor function: to receive and transduce external stimuli, as in the taste buds of the tongue, olfactory
epithelium of the nasal mucosa, and the retina of the eye