Common Histopathology terms - Highlights (Rete Ridges)

There are so many histopathology terms a student may need to get acquainted to. Here’s a snippet of one such histopathology term - “Rete Ridges”.

🤔What is a rete ridge? And what are some characteristic shapes they can assume?

• In the oral mucosa and skin, epithelial extensions called rete ridges or rete pegs interlock with the underlying connective tissue papillae. 

Keratinized and Non-keratinized epithelium - Did you know?

• Hence the interface between the epithelium and connective tissue in the oral mucosa is undulating or wavy. 

• The epithelial rete ridges may assume characteristic shapes in certain oral lesions.

✔Saw-Tooth shaped rete ridges

• “Saw tooth” rete ridges are classically seen in oral lichen planus and lichenoid reactions/lesions.

• The normal “U-shaped” rete ridges become pointed resembling a “saw tooth”, hence the name.

• The rete ridge, in these lesions, assumes this shape due to the basal cell degeneration of the epithelium by the subjacent inflammatory cells.

  

  Saw-tooth rete ridge

✔Drop-Shaped rete ridges

• Drop shaped or bulbous rete ridges may be seen in lesions showing dysplasia.

Oral Epithelial dysplasia - Did you know?

• In fact, “drop shaped rete ridge” is considered to be an important dysplastic feature (architectural change).

• Rete ridges assume this shape due to excessive proliferation of basal cells.

✔Elephant-Foot rete ridges

• In verrucous carcinoma, rete ridges are elongated, thick and bulky, and push into the adjacent connective tissue. 

• They are described as having an “elephant’s foot” appearance.

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🔎You could dig deeper into the topic

In fact, we delve a lot more deeper into this topic in our cheatsheet/note -> Common histopathology terms. We talk about,

• hyperplasia,

• acanthosis,

• hyperkeratosis,

• atrophy,

• acantholysis,

• metaplasia,

• dysplasia,

• invasion of epithelium into the connective tissue (carcinoma),

• rete ridges.

You could read in detail about Common Histopathology Terms with our Revision Ninja - Oral Pathology and Medicine Course bundle!

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💡Note

Apart from Notes, you could also get access to numerous MCQs and Videos with English captions/subtitles on various topics in Oral Pathology and Medicine.

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📚Other study resources on HackDentistry!

• Revision Ninja - Oral Histology (Notes, Videos & MCQs)

• Revision Ninja - Periodontics (Notes & MCQs)

• Question Bank (5000+ Questions)

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