parenchyma
/pəˈrɛŋkɪmə
/noun [mass noun]
1 Anatomy The functional tissue of an organ as distinguished from the connective and supporting tissue: the liver parenchyma...
- Brain parenchyma from the parietal lobe showed venous congestion, hemorrhage, and diffuse edema.
- No myospherules were found within the renal parenchyma or the adipose tissue.
- The tumor frequently extended to the adjacent lung parenchyma, bronchi, visceral pleura, and mediastinal soft tissues.
1.1 Botany The cellular tissue, typically soft and succulent, found chiefly in the softer parts of leaves, pulp of fruits, bark and pith of stems, etc. xylem parenchyma cells...
- In many dicotyledonous leaves, parenchyma or sclerenchyma cells of the vascular bundle sheath extend to the epidermis on both leaf sides, forming the so-called bundle sheath extensions.
- In this study, the pectate lyase gene expression was located in the recent products of cambial divisions of both phloem and xylem and conspicuously localized in the xylem parenchyma cells of young vascular bundles.
- ABA loss directly from the symplast to the apoplast is up to 4000 times lower than from mesophyll cells, phloem elements and stem parenchyma cells.
1.2 Zoology Cellular tissue lying between the body wall and the organs of invertebrate animals lacking a coelom, such as flatworms.Parichnos tissue is parenchyma with lots of air space between cells....
- Other mesodermal cells in the acoels are the peripheral parenchyma (connective tissue) and tunica cells of the gonads, and these also arise from the gastrodermis.
Derivatives
parenchymal
/ adjective (chiefly Anatomy ) ...- Spirometric measures admittedly can be nonspecific; they do not appear to be well correlated with the parenchymal damage of emphysema in a generally healthy population.
- The initial radiographic presentation of asbestosis is typically that of bilateral small primarily irregular parenchymal opacities in the lower lobes bilaterally.
- The initial evaluation of the urinary sediment generally identifies patients with parenchymal renal disease.
parenchymatous
- When applied to stems, oil moved through both stomata and intercellular spaces between epidermal cells; oil molecules diffused into the cytoplasm of both the epidermal and the parenchymatous cells.
- In non-angiosperm seed plants phloem elements consist mostly of sieve cells, while angiosperms have sieve tube cells in association with parenchymatous companion cells.
- The root is composed of a dorsal and ventral epidermis between which are sandwiched about six parenchymatous layers without intercellular spaces, and an anastomosing provascular strand.
Origin
Mid 17th century: from Greek parenkhuma 'something poured in besides', from para- 'beside' + enkhuma 'infusion'.