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Related Concept Videos

Epithelial Tissues and Their Functions01:23

Epithelial Tissues and Their Functions

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Epithelial tissues are large sheets of cells covering all of the surfaces of the body. These surfaces can be internal or external, for example, skin, airways, the digestive tract, the urinary system, and the reproductive system. Hollow organs and body cavities that do not connect to the body's exterior, including blood vessels and serous membranes, are lined by epithelial tissue known as the endothelium.
Epithelial tissues provide the body's first line of protection from physical,...
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Classification of Epithelial Tissues: Simple Epithelium01:30

Classification of Epithelial Tissues: Simple Epithelium

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Simple epithelium consists of a single layer of cells that lines body cavities and blood vessels. The shape of the cells in the epithelium reflects the function of the tissue. Cells in simple squamous epithelium appear as thin scales with flat, elliptical nuclei that mirror the form of the cell.
Because of the thinness of the cells, simple squamous epithelium is present where the rapid passage of chemical compounds is observed. For example, the endothelium that lines the capillaries and vessels...
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Classification of Epithelial Tissues: Glandular Epithelium01:20

Classification of Epithelial Tissues: Glandular Epithelium

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The glandular epithelium is made of one or more epithelial cells modified to synthesize and secrete chemical substances. Glandular epithelia can be classified based on cell number. Unicellular glands have individual secretory cells scattered across the epithelial monolayer. In contrast, multicellular glands consist of a hollow tubular duct attached to the cluster of secretory cells located in the deep pockets.
Multicellular glands are formed during early development when epithelial budding...
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Cell-matrix's Response to Mechanical Forces01:13

Cell-matrix's Response to Mechanical Forces

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In animal cells, the extracellular matrix allows cells within tissues to withstand external stresses and transmits signals from the outside of the cell to the inside. The extracellular matrix is extensive, and its composition varies between different types of tissues. For example, the reticular fibers and ground substance make up the ECM in loose connective tissue, while collagen and bone minerals make up the ECM of bone tissue. 
Anchoring junctions mechanically attach a cell to the...
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Classification of Epithelial Tissues: Overview01:22

Classification of Epithelial Tissues: Overview

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Epithelial tissues are classified according to the shape of the cells and the number of cell layers formed. Cell shapes can be squamous (flattened and thin), cuboidal (square-like, as wide as it is tall), or columnar (rectangular, taller than it is wide). Additionally, the nucleus shape helps identify the type of epithelial cells. Squamous cells have flattened disc-shaped nuclei, cuboidal cells have spherical nuclei, and columnar cells have elongated nuclei.
Based on the number of cell layers,...
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Tension Response at Adherens Junctions01:26

Tension Response at Adherens Junctions

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The adherens junctions that anchor cells together are multi-protein complexes that dynamically adapt to mechanical stimuli such as tensile forces and shear stress. Mechanosensory proteins in these junctions can sense such mechanical stimuli and undergo a shift in their conformation, resulting in an altered function — a process called mechanotransduction.
α-Catenin as a Mechanosensory Protein
The α-catenin of adherens junctions is an allosteric protein with three VH (vinculin...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 5, 2026

Preparation and Structural Evaluation of Epithelial Cell Monolayers in a Physiologically Sized Microfluidic Culture Device
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Preparation and Structural Evaluation of Epithelial Cell Monolayers in a Physiologically Sized Microfluidic Culture Device

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Force and Collective Epithelial Activities.

Aldo Ferrari1,2,3, Costanza Giampietro4

  • 1EMPA, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Science and Technologies, Dübendorf, Switzerland. aferrari@ethz.ch.

Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology
|October 16, 2019
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Cells exert forces for essential functions like division and migration. Understanding and measuring these cellular forces is crucial for biological research and medicine, requiring new engineering approaches.

Keywords:
Acto-myosin contractilityCollective migrationEpitheliaNano-printingTraction force microscopy

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Last Updated: Jan 5, 2026

Preparation and Structural Evaluation of Epithelial Cell Monolayers in a Physiologically Sized Microfluidic Culture Device
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Integrative Toolkit to Analyze Cellular Signals: Forces, Motion, Morphology, and Fluorescence
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Area of Science:

  • Mechanobiology
  • Cellular Biophysics
  • Tissue Engineering

Background:

  • Cells utilize mechanical forces for fundamental biological processes such as division, adhesion, and migration.
  • Coordinated cellular forces are vital in epithelial tissues for morphogenesis and repair, with dysregulation linked to pathology.
  • Mechanical forces and their biological signaling roles are a rapidly growing interdisciplinary research area.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To highlight the importance of mechanical forces in cellular and tissue-level biological activities.
  • To emphasize the need for advanced engineering methods to measure cellular forces.
  • To bridge the gap between biological phenomena and engineering/physics-based measurement techniques.

Main Methods:

  • Review of current understanding of cellular force generation and its biological implications.
  • Identification of limitations in existing measurement tools.
  • Advocacy for the development of novel engineering approaches.

Main Results:

  • Cellular forces are integral to normal physiological functions and pathological conditions.
  • Existing measurement techniques are insufficient for capturing in vivo cellular force dynamics.
  • There is a critical need for new engineering tools capable of high-resolution force measurement.

Conclusions:

  • Mechanobiology is a key discipline integrating engineering, physics, biology, and medicine.
  • Novel engineering methods are essential for measuring cellular and multicellular forces with spatiotemporal precision.
  • Accurate force measurement is critical for understanding development, function, and disease.