Terminology Service for NFDI4Health
intestinal villus
Go to external page
http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/UBERON_0001213
the tiny hair-like projections that protrude from the inside of the small intestine that contain blood vessels that capture digested nutrients that are absorbed through the intestinal wall; the villi increase the absorptive surface area of the small intestine by approximately 30-fold [ http://www.informatics.jax.org/accession/csmith http://www.informatics.jax.org/accession/rbabiuk ]
Term info
Label
intestinal villus
Synonyms
- enteric villi
- enteric villous
- enteric villus
- intestinal villi
- villi intestinales
- villus
- villus intestinalis (intestinum tenue)
Subsets
uberon_slim, pheno_slim, vertebrate_core
depicted by
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Small_intestine_low_mag.jpg
editor note
in mammals, villi are (largely?) absent from the large intestine, so we treat this as equivalent to small intestinal villus. small/large subdivision may not make sense for all species for which this is present (see ZFA). Note that VHOG quotes ISBN:978-0030223693 as suggesting there are some villi in the large intestine
external definition
The entire digestive tract is lined by well developed villi, which are longest in the intestinal bulb and decrease progressively in size towards the caudal end of the intestine. No crypts are present, but, the regions between the villi, the intervillus pockets, have a crypt-like function. Cells are produced in the intervillus pockets and shed from the villus tips. Crosnier et al. 2005[TAO]
external ontology notes
the BTO class refers to a generic villous
has alternative id
UBERON:0007607
has obo namespace
uberon
has related synonym
small intestine villus, villi intestinales, intestinal villus layer
id
UBERON:0001213
Term relations
Subclass of:
- anatomical entity
- organ component layer
- has_part some striated border microvillus layer
- part of some intestinal epithelium
- has_part some blood vessel
Related from: