Medical Dictionary
Main Entry:
Mer·kel cell Variant:
also Merkel's cell /'m&r-k&l(z)-/ Function:
noun : a cell that occurs in the basal part ofthe epidermis, is characterized by dense granules in its cytoplasm, is closely associated with the unmyelinated tip of a nerve fiber, and prob. functions in tactile sensory perception
Merákel /'mer-k&l,/ Friedrich Siegmund (1845–1919), German anatomist. A professor of anatomy, Merkel produced a multivolume work on human anatomy. He alsointroduced the use of xylene and celloidin into histological techniques and was the first to use in anatomical illustration the now-standard color scheme: red for the arteries, blue for the veins, andyellow for the nerves. In 1880 he described the composite nervous and epithelial structures that are known as Merkel's disks or corpuscles. The epithelial cells associated with these structures are nowcommonly called Merkel cells.
