Terminal web
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 | This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. (September 2015) |
The terminal web is a structure found at the apical surface of epithelial cells that possess microvilli. It is composed primarily of actin filaments stabilized by spectrin, which also anchors the terminal web to the apical cell membrane. The presence of myosin II and tropomyosin helps to explain the contractile ability of the terminal web. When contracted, the terminal web causes a decrease in diameter of the apex of the cell, causing the microvilli, which are anchored into the terminal web through their stiff actin fibers, to spread apart. This spreading apart of the microvilli aids cells in absorption.[1][2][3][4]
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). link Archived 21 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). link Archived 26 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). link Archived 21 October 2004 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Ross, Michael H., and Wojciech Pawlina. "Chapter 5: Epithelial Tissue." Histology: a Text and Atlas : with Correlated Cell and Molecular Biology. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Health, 2011. 110. Print.
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