Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 24.1.
Various morphological features of generic epithelial tissue
organization compared with mesenchymal cells.
•
Interactions between cells and the ECM are generally weak
such that there are no observable stress fibers or excessive
focal adhesionsin cells with theECM.
•
The cells are reacting and functioning normally within a
narrow range of fluidic shear.
Thus,mostepithelialcellsinnatural-tissueenvironmentsarestand-
ing up with strong cell-cell interaction and weak cell-ECM interac-
tion.
A typical example of the breakdown in epithelial organization is
thephenomenonofepithelial-mesenchymaltransition(EMT)ofcer-
taincelltypesorcancercells.Inepitheliaofmammarygland,cancer
cellsgothroughEMTuponinductionintoinvasivephenotypes.
1
The
epithelial morphology of a cluster of well-aligned cells transforms
intothemesenchymalmorphologytypicallyseeninfibroblasticcells
culturedonhardpolystyrenecellcultureplastic.
2
Thesecharacteris-
ticsofepithelialtissuerequirespecialattentiontothemicroenviron-
ment outside the cells when designing tissue engineering scaffolds
for the repair and stimulation ofepithelial tissueregeneration.
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