The Integumentary System – Flashcards
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The skin, sweat and oil glands, hairs, and nails all work together to form this.
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Integumentary System
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The subcutaneous tissue just deep to the skin.
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Hypodermis
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Another name for "hypodermis" because it is superficial to the tough connective tissue wrapping of the skeletal muscles, consists mostly of adipose tissue.
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Superficial Facscia
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Is a keratinized stratified squamous epithelium consisting of four distinct cell types and four or five distinct layers.
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Epidermis
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Role is to produce keratin.
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Keratinocytes
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The fibrous protein that helps give the epidermis its protective properties.
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Keratin
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The spider-shaped epithelial cells that synthesize the pigment melanin, are found in the deepest layer of the epidermis.
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Melanocytes
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Arise from bone marrow and migrate to the epidermis.
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Epidermal Dendritic Cells
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Another name for epidermal dendritic cells; named after a German anatomist; they ingest foreign substances and are key activators of our immune system.
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Langerhancs Cells
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Are present at the epidermal junction.
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Tactile (Merkel) Cells
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The deepest epidermal layer, is attached to the underlying dermis.
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Stratum Basale
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Is several cell layers thick; contain a weblike system of intermediate filaments, mainly tension-resisting bundles of pre-keratin filaments, which span their cytosol to attach to desmosomes.
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Stratum Spinosum
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Consists of three to five cell layers in which keratinocyte appearance changes drastically, and the process of keratinization
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Stratum Granulosum
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In which the cells fill with the protein keratin.
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Keratinization
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Appears as a thin translucent band just above the stratum granulosum.
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Stratum Lucidum
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Is a broad zone 20 to 30 cell layers thick that accounts for up to three-quarters of the epidermal thickness.
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Stratum Corneum
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Name the layers the nail pierced from the superficial skin surface to the junction with the dermis.
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stratum corneum, stratum lucidum, stratum granulosum, stratum spinosum, and stratum basale.
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Why are the desmosomes connecting the keratinocytes so important?
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The skin is subjected to a lot of abrasion and physical trauma. The desmosomes, which are connecting junctions, help to hold the cells together during such stress.
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Given that epithelia are avascular, what layer would be expected to have the best-nourished cells?
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The stratum basale, which abuts the dermis where the blood suply is, has the best nourished cells.
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The second major skin region, is strong, flexible connective tissue.
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Dermis
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Is areolar connective tissue in which fine interlacing collagen and elastic fibers form a loosely woven mat that is heavily invested with small blood
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Papillary Layer
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Peglike projections that indent the overlying epidermis.
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Dermal Papillae
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What layer of the dermis is responsible for producing fingerprint patterns?
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The papillary layer of the dermis gives rise to finerprint patterns.
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What cell componsent of the hypodermis makes it a good shock absorber?
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Fatty tissue in the hypodermis gives it insulating and shock-absorbing properties.
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You have just gotten a paper cut. It is very painful, but doesn't bleed. Has the cut penetrated into the dermis or just the epidermis?
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Because there is no bleeding, the cut has penetrated into the avascular epidermis only.
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Oxygenated pigment in the red blood cells circulating through the dermal capillaries.
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Hemoglobin
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Melanin and carotene are two pigments that contribute to skin color. What is the third and where is it found?
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The third pigment contributing to skin color is hemoglobin, the pigment found in red blood cells found in blood vessels of the dermis.
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What is cyanosis and what does it indicate?
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Cyanosis is a bluish cast of the skin that indicates that hemoglobin in the red blood cells in the dermal capillaries is poorly oxygenated.
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What alteration in skin color may indicate a liver disorder?
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Jaundice or a yellow cast to the skin due to the deposit of yellow bile pigments in body tissues may indicate a liver disorder.
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Include the nails, sweat glands, sebaceous (oil) glands, and hair follicles and hair.
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Skin Appendages
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Are distributed over the entire skin surface except the nipples and parts of the external genitalia.
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Sweat Glands
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Are far more numerous and are particularly abundant on the palms, soles of the feet, and forehead.
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Eccrine Sweat Glands
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Found in the axillary and anogenital areas.
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Apocrine Sweat gland
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Are modified apocrine glands found in the lining of the external ear canal.
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Ceruminous Gland
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Mammary Glands
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Secrete milk.
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Are simple branched alveolar glands that are found all over the body except in the thick skin of the palms and soles.
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Sebaceous Glands
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Oily substances secreted by sebaceous glands.
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Sebum
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Which cutaneous glands are associated with hair follicles?
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Sebaceous (oil) glands and apocrine glands are associated with the hair follicles.
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When Anthony returned home from a run in 85 degree weather, his face was dripping with sweat. Why?
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His sympathetic nervous system activated his eccrine sweat glands and caused heat-induced sweating in order to cool the body.
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What is the difference between heat-induced sweating and a "cold sweat," and which variety of sweat glands is involved?
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Heat-induced sweating occurs all over the body when we are over-heated. A cold sweat is emotionally induced sweating that begins on the palms, soles, and armpits and then spreads to other body areas. Both types of sweating are produced by the eccrine sweat glands, but activity of apocrine sweat glands is also likely during a cold sweat.
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Sebaceous glands are not found in thick skin. Why is their absence in those body regions desirable?
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The palms of the hands and soles of the feet are thick skin areas. It would be dangerous to have oily soles, and oily palms would decrease the ability of the hands to hang onto things.
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A knot of sensory nerve endings which wraps around each hair bulb.
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Hair Follicle Receptor or Root Hair Plexus
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Connective Tissue Root Sheath
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The wall of a hair follicle is composed of an outer layer derived from the dermis.
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Epithelial Root Sheath
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Inner layer derived mainly from an invagination of the epidermis.
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A bundle of smooth muscle cells
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Arrector Pili
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What are the concentric regions of a hair shaft, from the outside in?
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The regions of a hair from outside in are the cuticle, cortex and medulla.
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Why is having your hair cut painless?
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There are no nerves in a hair, so cutting hair is painless.
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What is the role of an arrector pili muscle?
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The arrector pili muscles pull the hair (normally slanted) to the upright position (when cold or scared).
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What is the function of the hair papilla?
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The hair papilla contains a knot of capillaries that supplies nutrients to cells of the hair bulb.
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Why is the lunule of a nail white instead of pink like the rest of the nail?
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The lunule of the nail is white because the thick nail matrix that underlies it blocks the rosy color of the dermal blood supply from showing through.
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Why are nails so hard?
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Nails are hard because the keratin they contain is the hard keratin variety.
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Acid Mantle
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The low pH of skin secretions.
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Cutaneous Sensory Receptors
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Which are actually part of the nervous system; respond to stimuli arising outside the body.
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What chemicals produced in the skin help provide barriers to bacteria? List at least three and explain how the chemicals are protective.
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The low pH of skin secretions (acid mantle) inhibits division of bacteria, and many bacteria are killed by bactericidal substances in sebum or by natural antibiotics called defensins. Damaged skin secretes cathelicidins that are effective against a certain strain of strep bacteria.
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What epidermal cells play a role in body immunity?
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The epidermal dendritic cells play a role in body immunity.
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How is sunlight important to bone health?
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Sunlight causes the skin to produce a precursor of vitamin D from cholesterol.
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How does the skin contribute to body metabolism?
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The skin carries out chemical conversions that supplement some of the protective conversions carried out by the liver, convert some chemicals into carcinogens, activate some steroid hormones, an dsynthesize the vitamin D precursor.
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Is the least malignant and most common skin cancer.
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Basal Cell Carcinoma
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The second most common skin cancer, arises from the keratinocytes of the stratum spinosum.
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Squamous Cell Carcinoma
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Cancer of melanocytes, is the most dangerous skin cancer because it is highly metastatic and resistant to
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Melanoma
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Which type of skin cancer develops from the youngest epidermal cells?
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Basal cell carcinoma develops from the youngest epidermal cells.
