Sclerosis (also sclerosus in the Latin names of a few disorders) is a hardening of tissue and other
anatomical
Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...
features. It may refer to:
*
Sclerosis (medicine)
Sclerosis () is the stiffening of a tissue or anatomical feature, usually caused by a replacement of the normal organ-specific tissue with connective tissue. The structure may be said to have undergone sclerotic changes or display sclerotic ...
, a hardening of tissue
* in zoology, a process which forms
sclerites
A sclerite (Greek , ', meaning " hard") is a hardened body part. In various branches of biology the term is applied to various structures, but not as a rule to vertebrate anatomical features such as bones and teeth. Instead it refers most commonly ...
, a hardened exoskeleton
* in botany, a process which hardens plant tissue by adding fibers and sclereids, resulting in
sclerenchyma
The ground tissue of plants includes all tissues that are neither dermal nor vascular. It can be divided into three types based on the nature of the cell walls. This tissue system is present between the dermal tissue and forms the main bulk of th ...
* in economics,
eurosclerosis
Eurosclerosis (German: ''Eurosklerose'') is a term coined by German economist Herbert Giersch in the 1970s, to describe a pattern of economic stagnation in Europe that may have resulted from government over-regulation and overly generous social be ...
{{disambig
ar:تَصلُب
ca:Esclerosi
mk:Склероза
pl:Stwardnienie
pt:Esclerose
fi:Skleroosi
sv:Skleros
zh:硬化