Basal lamina, basement membrane, reticular lamina?

[Lopyswine]

hey everyone,

so I am studying histology and I have completely confused myself with these terms.

Can anyone give me some insight as what these mean? From what I am gathering, these are descriptive terms for the attachments of epithelium to the connective tissue below.

So the basement membrane is made of a basal lamina and a reticular lamina?

Is the entire basal lamina not seen in light microscopy? This is due to staining, correct? Is the dark layer we see at the base of epi cells just the reticular lamina?

Then if we use electron microscopy we will see a basal lamina made of a lamina lucida and lamina densa? In em will we also see the reticular lamina beneath the basal lamina?


if someone could help me out it would be much appreciated.

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[coldweatherblue]

basement membrane = viewable with light microscopy and H&E stain. Look at your tracheal slides of respiratory epithelium and you will see a fairly obvious pink line running beneath the pseudostratified, ciliated epithelium.

basal lamina = viewable with electron microscopy. This is just another name for the basement membrane only it's a little more specific. As far as I understand the convention is to use basement membrane when talking about things viewable in light microscopy and basal lamina when talking about things in electron microscopy. The lamina lucida is closest to the cell and the lamina desna is adjacent to the connective tissue.

Reticular fibers are part of the underlying connective tissue, not part of the epithelium. They are "beneath" the lamina densa.

 

[IHeartNerds]

basal lamina = viewable with electron microscopy. This is just another name for the basement membrane only it's a little more specific. As far as I understand the convention is to use basement membrane when talking about things viewable in light microscopy and basal lamina when talking about things in electron microscopy. The lamina lucida is closest to the cell and the lamina desna is adjacent to the connective tissue.

The basement membrane and the basal lamina are NOT the same thing. This point drove our histo professor crazy so I remember it ... one of the few things from histo I DO remember...

The basal lamina is comprised of the lucida and densa layers, while the BM is comprised of the basal lamina and the reticular fibers (lamina reticularis) below it.

This is a minor point but has some importance, in that the basal lamina is made from the epithelial cells, but the basement membrane also depends upon the fibroblasts below the epithelia for its synthesis, because the basal reticularis is made from those cells.

 

[ZonaRidicularis]

z

 

[Hayden2102]

Pretty darn sure it's reticularis, not redicularis.

 

[ninjapenguin]

Yeah, I've really only read reticular lamina... never heard of ridicularis.

 

[themule]

Pretty darn sure it's reticularis, not redicularis.

Yeah, I've really only read reticular lamina... never heard of ridicularis.

Me thinks you have missed the joke look at the posters username.

 

[ZonaRidicularis]

z

 

[coldweatherblue]

The basement membrane and the basal lamina are NOT the same thing. This point drove our histo professor crazy so I remember it ... one of the few things from histo I DO remember..

From Ross, 4th edition, page 107:

"The terms basement membrane and basal lamina are used inconsistently in the literature. Some authors use basement membrane when referring to both light and electron microscopic images. Other's dispense with the term basement membrane altogether and use basal lamina in both light and electron microscopy. (...)"

it makes sense that the basal lamina is more specifically defined than the basement membrane. I didn't mean to imply that they were the same thing; the terms have different usages. But ultimately when you take out your microscope and check out some H&E stained epithelium, the pink layer you see at the bottom of the epithelial cells IS the basement membrane, as well as the basal lamina. You can't really "see" the basal lamina because you can't differentiate the lamina lucida/densa, etc, but you're still looking at it. As I said, just how I understand it...

 

[xanthomondo]

The fun part is that the lamina lucida doesn't even exist

 

[Hayden2102]

Reticular Lamina and Lamina Reticularis are the same thing. My professor always said the latter and it stuck with me.

Yea I know it's not actually called "ridicularis", but thanks for trying to save the day Captain Obvious.

Sorry, my sarcasm meter wasn't working properly, late night.