Mesoglea refers to the

extracellular matrix In biology, the extracellular matrix (ECM), also called intercellular matrix, is a three-dimensional network consisting of extracellular macromolecules and minerals, such as collagen, enzymes, glycoproteins and hydroxyapatite that provide s ...

found in

cnidaria Cnidaria () is a phylum under kingdom Animalia containing over 11,000 species of aquatic animals found both in freshwater and marine environments, predominantly the latter. Their distinguishing feature is cnidocytes, specialized cells that ...

ns like

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and se ...

jellyfish Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbre ...

that functions as a hydrostatic skeleton. It is related to but distinct from mesohyl, which generally refers to extracellular material found in sponges.

Description

The mesoglea is mostly water. Other than water, the mesoglea is composed of several substances including fibrous proteins, like

collagen Collagen () is the main structural protein in the extracellular matrix found in the body's various connective tissues. As the main component of connective tissue, it is the most abundant protein in mammals, making up from 25% to 35% of the whol ...

and heparan sulphate

proteoglycan Proteoglycans are proteins that are heavily glycosylated. The basic proteoglycan unit consists of a "core protein" with one or more covalently attached glycosaminoglycan (GAG) chain(s). The point of attachment is a serine (Ser) residue to whic ...

s. The mesoglea is mostly acellular, but in both

and

ctenophora Ctenophora (; ctenophore ; ) comprise a phylum of marine invertebrates, commonly known as comb jellies, that inhabit sea waters worldwide. They are notable for the groups of cilia they use for swimming (commonly referred to as "combs"), and ...

the mesoglea contains muscle bundles and nerve fibres. Other nerve and muscle cells lie just under the epithelial layers. The mesoglea also contains wandering amoebocytes that play a role in phagocytosing debris and bacteria. These cells also fight infections by producing antibacterial chemicals. The mesoglea may be thinner than either of the cell layers in smaller coelenterates like a hydra or may make up the bulk of the body in larger

. The mesoglea serves as an internal skeleton, supporting the body. Its elastic properties help restore the shape after it is deformed by the contraction of muscles. However, without the

buoyancy Buoyancy (), or upthrust, is an upward force exerted by a fluid that opposes the weight of a partially or fully immersed object. In a column of fluid, pressure increases with depth as a result of the weight of the overlying fluid. Thus the ...

of water to support it, the mesoglea is not stiff enough to bear the weight of the body and coelenterates generally tend to flatten out, or even collapse when they are taken out of water. The mesoglea is sandwiched between the

epidermis The epidermis is the outermost of the three layers that comprise the skin, the inner layers being the dermis and hypodermis. The epidermis layer provides a barrier to infection from environmental pathogens and regulates the amount of water rel ...

and the gastrodermis. In some jellyfish the epidermis on the umbrella/bell surface seems to break off when the jellyfish grows so the mesoglea of older jellyfish is directly exposed to the water. The mesoglea itself consists of multiple layers that can be differentiated by their electron density. The most prominent of these are the

basal lamina The basal lamina is a layer of extracellular matrix secreted by the epithelial cells, on which the epithelium sits. It is often incorrectly referred to as the basement membrane, though it does constitute a portion of the basement membrane. The bas ...

and the interstitial matrix.

Uses of the term

In order to differentiate the use of the word

mesenchyme Mesenchyme () is a type of loosely organized animal embryonic connective tissue of undifferentiated cells that give rise to most tissues, such as skin, blood or bone. The interactions between mesenchyme and epithelium help to form nearly every ...

in vertebrate embryology (that is, undifferentiated tissue found in embryonic true nto-

esoderm Lindane, also known as ''gamma''-hexachlorocyclohexane (γ-HCH), gammaxene, Gammallin and benzene hexachloride (BHC), is an organochlorine chemical and an isomer of hexachlorocyclohexane that has been used both as an agricultural insecticide and ...

from which are derived all connective tissues, blood vessels, blood cells, the lymphatic system, and the heart) and the use in invertebrate zoology (a more-or-less solid but loosely organized tissue consisting of a gel matrix

he mesoglea, in strict sense He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

with various cellular and fibrous inclusions, located between

and gastrodermis), some authors prefer to use the term mesoglea (in wider sense) in lieu of mesenchyme when referring to the middle layers of sponges and diploblasts, reserving the term mesenchyme for the embryological sense. However, Brusca & Brusca (2003) discourage this usage, using mesoglea in its strict sense, and preferring to maintain both the embryological and zoological senses for the term mesenchyme.Brusca & Brusca (2003), p. 220.

References

Cnidarian anatomy {{cnidarian-anatomy-stub

Description

Uses of the term

See also

References