How to Use epithelial in a Sentence

epithelial

adjective
  • Our skin cells are epithelial cells, as are the cells that form the walls of many of our organs.
    — Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, 30 July 2018
  • The drug is deposited next to epithelial cells that can transfer it to the bloodstream.
    — Scott Lafee, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Aug. 2025
  • Long-term exposure to heat and ozone causes a reaction with the epithelial cells in the lungs.
    — Sarah Bowman, The Indianapolis Star, 21 Aug. 2023
  • After studying the effects of each gene found in the lung epithelial cells, Biering et al.
    — William A. Haseltine, Forbes, 11 Aug. 2022
  • In epithelial cells, microtubules run from top to bottom, with their plus ends toward the bottom.
    — Matthew Taliaferro, The Conversation, 6 Mar. 2023
  • Paneth cells are specialized epithelial cells which line the surface of the small intestine.
    — William A. Haseltine, Forbes, 26 Mar. 2022
  • As seen in the image above, the central gray core is the human epithelial tissue that makes up the outer flesh of our mouth muscles.
    — Popular Science, 20 Apr. 2020
  • Typically as a woman ages, the epithelial cells in breast disappear and are replaced by fat.
    — Shari Rudavsky, Indianapolis Star, 27 Apr. 2017
  • For the new study, the scientists first wanted to see what happened when epithelial cells were introduced to a virus-like challenge.
    — Maggie Chen, WIRED, 2 Jan. 2023
  • This usually involves some loss of protective epithelial cells on the surface, which can regrow.
    — Maxine Lipner, Verywell Health, 12 Sep. 2024
  • Collagen peptides have been shown to help improve the health of the gut by strengthening the epithelial barrier.
    — Amber Smith, Discover Magazine, 23 Mar. 2022
  • When the scientists removed the growth factors, the cells began to morph into the epithelial cells that produce venom in the glands of snakes.
    — Erin Malsbury, Science | AAAS, 23 Jan. 2020
  • These proteins are all present on epithelial, or surface, cells of the human airway, presenting easy targets to any airborne virus.
    — Quanta Magazine, 25 Feb. 2020
  • Metastatic carcinoma is a type of cancer that originates in epithelial tissue and has spread to other parts of the body.
    — Carl Engelking, Discover Magazine, 18 Mar. 2014
  • Imagine a dermal patch that integrates these chips with nanoneedles, which inject their output into the skin’s epithelial cells.
    — Andrew Hessel, Ars Technica, 20 June 2019
  • Because epithelial cells grow quickly, even a slight mismatch between the rates of cell division and cell death can quickly add up to a tumor or injury.
    — Elise Cutts, Quanta Magazine, 12 Jan. 2026
  • In some cases, the healthy epithelial cells turn into earlier-stage mesenchymal cells, break free from the tumor and become mobile in the body.
    — Philip Ball, Scientific American, 21 Apr. 2020
  • In cloning, the nucleus of the epithelial cell needs to essentially erase its memory and be reprogrammed.
    — Alexandra Horowitz, The New Yorker, 24 June 2024
  • Both endothelial cells in the blood vessel and epithelial cells in the respiratory tract have the same protein receptor that binds with the virus.
    — Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY, 27 May 2020
  • McCole has found that weightlessness made epithelial cells—which line the gut and stop invaders from entering the body—easier to evade.
    — Jessica Wapner, The Atlantic, 15 Mar. 2023
  • Within your respiratory tract, the epithelial cells lining your airways and lungs serve as the first line of defense against inhaled pathogens and debris.
    — Hayley Muendlein, The Conversation, 17 Aug. 2022
  • One is a flat sheet of epithelial cells that have an up-and-down orientation—like the cell of a swimming choanoflagellate, which has a distinct top and bottom (see video, right).
    — Elizabeth Pennisi, Science | AAAS, 24 Feb. 2021
  • The researchers used human lung epithelial cells, which line the respiratory tract and serve as a defense against inhaled pathogens and particles.
    — New Atlas, 25 Oct. 2025
  • Rosenblatt has spent 25 years piecing together the details of epithelial extrusion, a process that keeps tissue growth in check.
    — Elise Cutts, Quanta Magazine, 12 Jan. 2026
  • In the gut lining, intestinal mast cells take cues from other nearby epithelial cells, shifting activity to make more leukotrienes and less histamine.
    — Hannah Millington, MSNBC Newsweek, 28 Aug. 2025
  • The virus targets the mammary gland's milk-secreting epithelial cells, causing painful infections in the udder.
    — Pranjal Malewar, New Atlas, 3 Nov. 2025
  • Naegleria fowleri enters your body through the nose, crosses the epithelial lining and then makes a beeline up the olfactory nerve to the frontal part of the brain.
    — Avery Hurt, Discover Magazine, 3 Oct. 2023
  • Some of the byproducts of this colonic amino acid metabolism may negatively affect epithelial cells residing there.
    — Patrick Wilson, Outside Online, 11 Sep. 2020
  • The combination means that the needles can penetrate the outer layers of the cornea, the epithelial and stromal layers, which protect the eye.
    — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, 9 Nov. 2018
  • Obviously, norovirus attacks intestinal epithelial cells, the specialized cells that line tubes within the body.
    — Diana Gitig, Ars Technica, 14 Apr. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'epithelial.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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