Descriptive Terminology

Descriptive Terminology

1. Cell shape

   • Squamous: flattened, irregular shape. thinnest cell in body. lines certain body cavities, lines blood vessels (lumen), cornea
   • Cuboidal: square shape, centered nucleus
   • Columnar: tall/long/skinny,apical side usually have cilia or microville
   • Spherical/ovoid:
     • mast cells
     • lymphocye
   • Fusiform: aka spindle shape, elongated, tapered smooth muscle cells. long skinny usually fuse together and have long skinny nuclei
   • Polyhedral: multiple flattened surfaces
     • hepatocyte: liver cell. 6 sides
   • Polarized: 1 aspect of cell has diff. function than other aspect
     • all epithelial cells: apical side- active side,

2. Cytoplasmic features:

   • basophilia: bluish/purpleish. because DNA stains purple
     • Rough ER
     • Nucleus
   • eosinophilia: pinkish
     • mitochondria
     • cytoplasm
   • Granules: enzymes
   • Vacuolated cytoplasm: empty vesicles or lipid droplets

3. Nucleus features

   • Size: small vs. large
   • simple vs. segmented