🦠 Muscle-like and epithelial 🦠 A special gland cell

myoepithelial

9.9

A cell that acts like muscle to squeeze fluid from glands

noun
/ˌmaɪoʊˌɛpɪˈθiːliəl/

Specialized

: célula mioepitelial

Because the criteria for malignancy in salivary gland myoepithelial tumors were not met, the tumor was thought to be benign.
myoepithelial cell
myoepithelial carcinoma

Examples

PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Figure 4. Myoepithelial differentiation (arrows) in the periphery of the tumor acinus (EM x 6,400).

Academic text (1995)
Myoepithelial-like cells were found bordering some acini and contained abundant mitochondria (Figure 4).

Academic text (1995)
When stimulated, myoepithelial cells contract to help push secretions from the gland into the ducts.
In the salivary gland, myoepithelial cells are crucial for proper gland function and secretion.
The presence of myoepithelial cells around the acini indicates healthy glandular tissue.

Surface Forms

myoepithelial singular

myoepithelials plural

Morphology

myoepithelial = epithelial (semi-transparent) = myo + epithelium + al

The word is built transparently from the technical prefix myo- ('muscle') plus epithelial, but the resulting medical term is specialized vocabulary.

Etymology

Myoepithelial names a cell made of two parts: myo- 'muscle' and epithelial 'surface tissue', which shows the cell is both muscle-like and a surface cell. So a myoepithelial cell can contract to push or squeeze secretions from a gland.