Integumentary System Basics
The largest and most visible organ of the human body.
What is the skin (or cutaneous membrane)?
The type of epithelial tissue that composes the epidermis.
What is stratified squamous epithelium?
The upper dermal projections that extend into the epidermis to form fingerprints and increase surface area.
What are dermal papillae?
The brown, yellow-brown, or black pigment synthesized by melanocytes.
What is melanin?
The most common form of skin cancer, originating in the stratum germinativum.
What is basal cell carcinoma?
The two major components that make up the integumentary system.
What are the cutaneous membrane (skin) and accessory structures?
The specific layer of the epidermis found exclusively in thick skin.
What is the stratum lucidum?
The superficial dermal layer composed of loose areolar connective tissue that nourishes the epidermis.
What is the papillary layer?
The orange-yellow pigment obtained from foods like carrots that is converted into Vitamin A.
What is carotene?
What the letters "A" and "B" stand for in the skin cancer evaluation rule.
What are Asymmetry and Borders (irregular)?
The tissue layer located directly beneath the dermis that connects it to deeper structures like bone and muscle.
What is the subcutaneous layer (or hypodermis)?
The mnemonic phrase used to remember the epidermal layers from deep to superficial.
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The two fiber types found in the dense irregular connective tissue of the reticular layer.
What are collagen fibers and elastic fibers?
Concentrated areas of greater-than-normal melanin production on the skin.
What are freckles?
What the letters "C", "D", and "E" stand for in the skin cancer evaluation rule.
What are Color, Diameter, and Evolving?
Three of the five major functions of the integumentary system.
What are protection, temperature maintenance, synthesis/storage of nutrients, sensory reception, and excretion/secretion? (Any three)
The deepest epidermal layer that rests on the basement membrane and contains stem cells.
What is the stratum basale (or stratum germinativum)?
The primary reason for the increased surface area created by epidermal ridges and dermal papillae.
What is to improve the exchange of nutrients, oxygen, and waste (since the epidermis lacks blood vessels)?
The bluish coloration of skin caused by a severe loss of oxygen in the dermal circulation.
What is cyanosis?
he extremely dangerous skin cancer of melanocytes that carries a 75% mortality rate due to rapid metastasis.
What is melanoma?
The nutrient synthesized by the skin in response to UV rays and the tissue that stores lipids in the hypodermis.
What are Vitamin D (or D3) and adipose tissue?
The average timeframe required for a cell to move through all epidermal layers and be shed from the body.
What is 4–6 weeks?
Three functions provided by the fat (adipose tissue) stored within the subcutaneous layer.
What are thermal insulation, cushioning, and energy reserve?
How melanin protects epidermal cells from skin cancer when exposed to UV radiation.
How is melanin packaged into vesicles that surround the nucleus to absorb UV rays and protect DNA from mutating?
The threshold diameter size (in millimeters or common object equivalent) that indicates suspicion under the ABCDE rule.
What is greater than 6 mm (about the size of a pencil eraser)?