Our large airways are lined by ciliated pseudostratified epithelium. For now, we are happy if you can just find the cilia.

The cilia beat towards the oropharynx. They propel a thin layer of mucus, so that you can cough it up and swallow it when you "clear your throat."

There's an old claim that smoking one pack of cigs paralyzes your cilia. If that were true, then smokers would get the same lung lesions as do people born with paralyzed cilia. They don't.

Remember that the connective tissue just underlying a surface epithelium of an internal organ is called the "lamina propria".

This is a section of a large airway.

With your study partners, find:

• the epithelium


• the cilia


• the mucus layer


• the thick basement membrane


• the lamina propria

Roots:

• Lamina: layer


• Propria: belongs to

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Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences