Basement Membrane (of Secondary Ovarian Follicle)
Membrana basalis folliculi ovarici secundariae
Read moreQuick Facts
The basement membrane is a thin sheet of amorphous extracellular material upon which the basal surfaces of epithelial cells rest; other cells associated with basement membranes are muscle cells, Schwann cells, and fat cells. The membrane is interposed between the cellular elements and the underlying connective tissue. It usually comprises two layers, the basal lamina and the reticular lamina, and is composed of Type IV collagen (which is unique to basement membranes), laminin, fibronectin, and heparan sulfate proteoglycans (Dorland, 2011).
Related parts of the anatomy
Structure and/or Key Feature(s)
Almost all epithelia are attached to some form of underlying connective tissues by a basement membrane.
In the primordial and primary ovarian follicles, the outer surface of the simple squamous and simple cuboidal follicular cells are bound by a basement membrane. As the ovarian follicles develop into secondary and tertiary follicles, the granulosa is bound by a basement membrane that will separate it from the follicular theca (Ross and Pawlina, 2006).
In mature follicles that undergo atresia, the glassy membrane is formed from a much thickened basement membrane that is between the membrana granulosa and the theca interna (Ross and Pawlina, 2006).
Anatomical Relations
The follicular basement membrane separates the membrana granulosa from the theca interna layer in developing follicles.
References
Dorland, W. (2011) Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary. 32nd edn. Philadelphia, USA: Elsevier Saunders.
Ross, M. H. and Pawlina, W. (2006) Histology: A text and atlas. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
