Structure Features
Structural features of podocytes indicate a high rate of vesicular traffic in these cells. Many coated vesicles and coated pits can be seen along the basolateral domain of the podocytes.
In their cell bodies, podocytes possess a well-developed endoplasmic reticulum and a large Golgi apparatus, indicative of a high capacity for protein synthesis and post-translational modifications.
There is also growing evidence of a large number of multivesicular bodies and other lysosomal components seen in these cells, indicating a high endocytic activity.
"Pedicels" (or "foot processes") extend from the podocyte and increase the surface area which is crucial for the efficiency of ultrafiltration.
Read more about this topic: Podocyte
Famous quotes containing the words structure and/or features:
“There is no such thing as a language, not if a language is anything like what many philosophers and linguists have supposed. There is therefore no such thing to be learned, mastered, or born with. We must give up the idea of a clearly defined shared structure which language-users acquire and then apply to cases.”
—Donald Davidson (b. 1917)
““It looks as if
Some pallid thing had squashed its features flat
And its eyes shut with overeagerness
To see what people found so interesting
In one another, and had gone to sleep
Of its own stupid lack of understanding,
Or broken its white neck of mushroom stuff
Short off, and died against the windowpane.””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)