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Histology and Embryology: Epithelial tissue · Classification of Epithelia

How epithelia are named by layers and cell shape, where each type lines the body, and how form follows function and changes in disease.

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Histology and Embryology · 28 questions

Try 3 questions

1. Covering epithelia are named using which two features?

  1. Thickness and the organ they line
  2. Cell size and how dark nuclei stain
  3. Number of layers and shape of cells
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Answer: Number of layers and shape of cells

Histologists classify epithelia as simple or stratified (layers) and as squamous, cuboidal or columnar (cell shape), for example 'simple columnar'.

2. A stratified epithelium has round cells at its base and flat cells on top. What is it called?

  1. Stratified mixed epithelium
  2. Stratified squamous, after the surface
  3. Stratified cuboidal, after the base
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Answer: Stratified squamous, after the surface

Stratified epithelia are named for the shape of the cells in the outermost (apical) layer, whatever the deeper cells look like.

3. Which epithelium best suits a surface whose main job is rapid gas diffusion, like the lung's alveoli?

  1. Simple squamous
  2. Stratified cuboidal
  3. Simple columnar
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Answer: Simple squamous

A single layer of very flat cells gives the shortest possible distance for oxygen and carbon dioxide to cross.

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