My watch list
my.bionity.com  
Login  

Tertiary bronchus



Tertiary bronchus
1. Trachea
2. Mainstem bronchus
3. Lobar bronchus
4. Segmental bronchus
5. Bronchiole
6. Alveolar duct
7. Alveolus
Latin bronchi segmentales
Dorlands/Elsevier b_23/12198382

The tertiary bronchi (also known as the segmental bronchi) arise from the secondary bronchi. The respiratory epithelium lining their lumen is surrounded by a layer of smooth muscle. This layer is composed of two ribbons of smooth muscle that spiral in opposite directions. The smooth muscle layer is surrounded by irregular plates of hyaline cartilage which help maintain the patency of the airway.

Each of the tertiary bronchi serves a specific bronchopulmonary segment. There are 10 tertiary bronchi in the right lung, and eight in the left.

The tertiary bronchi get smaller and divide into primary bronchioles.

Additional images

References

Gartner, Leslie P. and James L. Hiatt. Color Textbook of Histology, 2nd ed. (2001). ISBN 0-7216-8806-3

 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Tertiary_bronchus". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
Your browser is not current. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 does not support some functions on Chemie.DE