Menton D N
Am J Anat. 1976 Jan;145(1):1-22. doi: 10.1002/aja.1001450102.
It has recently been discovered that the stratum corneum and superficial living epidermis of mammalian skin are organized into neat vertical columns of interdigitating cells. The mechanism for this organization has not yet been determined. This study shows that the stacked organization is not unique to the epidermis but also occurs in cork cambium and the pith of woody plant stems. The structural and spatial organization of the stacked cells in these tissues were compared and found to approximate closely the shape of Kelvin's minimum-surface polygon, the tetrakaidecahedron. Paper models of flattened tetrakaidecahedra were constructed and found to stack columns of interdigitating units which are consistent with all of the structural details seen in stacked cells observed under the light and the scanning electron microscopes. Indeed, only polygons of this type are capable of aggregating without interstices in the manner of the stacked cells. A study of stacked arrays of these models has revealed a mechanism by which the epidermis might become organized in columns of stacked and interdigitating cells. The proposed mechanism assumes that cells within an array seek the smallest possible surface-to-volume ratio and, under appropriate conditions, form stacked tetrakaidecahedra.
最近发现，哺乳动物皮肤的角质层和浅表活表皮组织成整齐的垂直柱状，细胞相互交错。这种组织形成的机制尚未确定。本研究表明，这种堆叠组织并非表皮所特有，在木本植物茎的木栓形成层和髓中也会出现。对这些组织中堆叠细胞的结构和空间组织进行了比较，发现其形状与开尔文最小表面多边形——十四面体非常接近。构建了扁平十四面体的纸质模型，发现它们能堆叠相互交错的单元柱，这与在光学显微镜和扫描电子显微镜下观察到的堆叠细胞的所有结构细节一致。实际上，只有这种类型的多边形才能以堆叠细胞的方式无间隙地聚集。对这些模型的堆叠阵列进行研究，揭示了一种表皮可能组织成堆叠且相互交错细胞柱的机制。所提出的机制假定，阵列中的细胞寻求尽可能小的表面积与体积比，并在适当条件下形成堆叠的十四面体。
