invagination
/ɪnˌvadʒɪˈneɪʃ(ə)n
/noun [mass noun] chiefly Anatomy & Biology
1The action or process of being turned inside out or folded back on itself to form a cavity or pouch.This indicates a level of plasma membrane invagination comparable with mammalian skeletal muscle....
- In the chick embryo, for example, the ectoderm initially expresses L-CAM; during neural plate invagination, however, L-CAM expression is replaced by that of N-cadherin.
- Catheters with multiple side holes on several planes are less likely to cause invagination of airway mucosa into the catheter than those with single side or end holes.
1.1 [count noun] A cavity or pouch so formed.Intranuclear cytoplasmic invaginations, similar to that seen in non-neoplastic hepatocytes (or in metastatic melanoma) are also frequent....
- These invaginations represent placental outgrowths and they extend towards the centre, enclosing the central hole into a triangular slit.
- As is typical, many of the latter showed reactive changes, such as large, variably sized nuclei; intranuclear invaginations; and multinucleation.
Origin
Mid 17th century: from modern Latin invaginatio(n-), based on in-2 'into' + Latin vagina 'sheath'.