What does urothelium mean?
The urothelium is a highly specialized type of tissue that lines the inside of your urinary tract. It serves as a barrier, preventing urine (pee) from leaking out into your body. It also stretches and contracts as your bladder fills and empties. More than 90% of bladder cancers start in the urothelium.
Where is urothelium located?
The lining of the urinary tract, including the renal pelvis, ureters, bladder, and urethra.
What tissue is urothelium?
transitional epithelium
The urothelium is a transitional epithelium, classified as such because its properties lie between stratified squamous and simple non-stratified epithelia.
What is special about the urothelium?
The urothelium, the epithelium lining the surface of the urinary bladder, is a unique cell type with high plasticity and a variety of cellular functions. The urothelium represents the first line of bladder defense and an interface between pathogens and defense mechanisms.
Which type of cells we have in the urothelium?
Context in source publication Adult bladder urothelium is com- posed of three cell types: basal cells, intermediate cells, and superficial cells.
How is the urothelium adapted for its function?
The urothelium is adapted as a barrier epithelium through: Specialised features that limit transcellular and paracellular permeability. Longevity of superficial urothelial cells to preserve urinary barrier function. High threshold for apoptosis – where cell repair rather than loss is the default pathway.
What structures are lined with urothelium?
Lining epithelium: The urinary bladder lining is a specialized stratified epithelium, the urothelium. The urothelium is exclusively in urinary structures such as the ureter, urinary bladder, and proximal urethra.
Where does urothelium end?
The final urothelial cell layer is the basal cell layer, which is positioned at the interface of the urothelium and the underlying lamina propria (FIGURE 1).
What cells make up the urothelium?
The urothelium is a stratified epithelium comprised of three distinct cell layers: the superficial layer, populated by a single layer of umbrella cells; the intermediate cell layer, which can be one-to-several layers thick depending on species; and the basal cell layer, which is one cell layer thick (295) (FIGURE 1A).
How is urothelium adapted for its function?
Why transitional epithelium is called urothelium?
The transitional epithelium is also called urothelium because it lines urinary ducts, such as renal calyxes (2 cell layers), urethers (3 to 5 cell layers), urethra (4 to 5 cell layers) and urinary bladder (up to 6 cell layers).