Mesangium
In anatomy, the mesangium is the connective tissue stalk made of extracellular matrix from which the glomerular capillary loops emerge. This connective tissue contains cells called mesangial cells or mesangiocytes . Because they are located inside the kidney corpuscle (intraglomerular), they are also known as intraglomerular mesangial cells . Mesangial cells are important for capillary function because they are contractile (can contract) and support the capillary walls and are capable of phagocytosis .
The intraglomerular mesangium cells are separated from the extraglomerular mesangium cells , which are located outside at the vascular pole of the renal corpuscle. The extra-glomerular mesangial cells are part of the juxtaglomerular apparatus . They are also known as Goormaghtigh cells after the Belgian pathologist Norbert Goormaghtigh .
Schematic structure of a kidney corpuscle: | |
A kidney corpuscles
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swell
- Renate Lüllmann-Rauch: Pocket textbook histology Georg Thieme Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-13-129242-3 , p. 448.
- Walther Graumann: CompactLehrbuch Anatomie 3 Schattauer Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-7945-2063-7 , p. 234, p. 238.