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The word skin originally only referred to dressed and tanned animal hide and the usual word for human skin was hide. Skin is a borrowing from Old Norse skinn "animal hide, fur", ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *sek-, meaning "to cut" (probably a reference to the fact that in those times animal hide was commonly cut off to be used as garment).
Differentiated keratinocytes secrete keratin proteins, which contribute to the formation of an extracellular matrix that is an integral part of the skin barrier function. In normal skin, the rate of keratinocyte production equals the rate of loss, [4] taking about two weeks for a cell to journey from the stratum basale to the top of the stratum ...
The cells here may possess microvilli for maximizing the surface area for absorption, and these microvilli may form a brush border. Other cells may be ciliated to move mucus in the function of mucociliary clearance. Other ciliated cells are found in the fallopian tubes, the uterus and central canal of the spinal cord.
Skin performs the following functions: Protection: an anatomical barrier from pathogens and damage between the internal and external environment in bodily defence; Langerhans cells in the skin are part of the adaptive immune system. [7] [35] Perspiration contains lysozyme that break the bonds within the cell walls of bacteria. [36]
Micrograph of keratinocytes, basal cells and melanocytes in the epidermis Keratinocytes (stained green) in the skin of a mouse. Keratinocytes are the primary type of cell found in the epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin. In humans, they constitute 90% of epidermal skin cells. [1]
In zoology, the epidermis is an epithelium (sheet of cells) that covers the body of a eumetazoan (animal more complex than a sponge). [1] [2] Eumetazoa have a cavity lined with a similar epithelium, the gastrodermis, which forms a boundary with the epidermis at the mouth. [2] Sponges have no epithelium, and therefore no epidermis or ...
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The integumentary system is the set of organs forming the outermost layer of an animal's body. It comprises the skin and its appendages, which act as a physical barrier between the external environment and the internal environment that it serves to protect and maintain the body of the animal. Mainly it is the body's outer skin.