Figure 1.
Structure of the intestinal epithelium. (A) The inner surface epithelium of the small intestine is folded into large numbers of villi. (B, C) In-between the villi are the crypts of lieberkühn. (D) Electron microscopy image of an intestinal crypt with slender crypt base columnar (CBC) cells residing in-between granulated Paneth cells (P). Reproduced with the kind permission of Prof Dr Wim A Buurman (Maastricht University). (E) Schematic representation of a single small intestinal crypt for reference.