What is "trabecula"

Trabecula \Tra*bec"u*la\, n.; pl. Trabecul[ae] (-l[=e]). [L., a little beam.] (Anat.) A small bar, rod, bundle of fibers, or septal membrane, in the framework of an organ part.

n. 1 A small supporting beam. 2 (context anatomy English) A small mineralized spicule that forms a network in spongy bone. 3 (context anatomy English) A fibrous strand of connective tissue that supports it in place.

1. n. rod-shaped structures of fibrous tissue that divide an organ into parts (as in the penis) or stabilize the structure of an organ (as in the spleen)

2. [also: trabeculae (pl)]

A trabecula (plural trabeculae, from Latin for "small beam") is a small, often microscopic, tissue element in the form of a small beam, strut or rod, generally having a mechanical function, and usually composed of dense collagenous tissue (such as the trabecula of the spleen.) They can be composed of other materials; in the heart, for example, muscles such as trabeculae carneae and septomarginal trabecula form similar structures. The formation of trabeculae is known as trabeculation.

On histological section, trabeculae of a cancellous bone can look like septa, but in three dimensions they are topologically distinct, with trabeculae being roughly rod or pillar-shaped and septa being sheet-like.

When crossing fluid-filled spaces, trabeculae may have the function of resisting tension (as in the penis, see for example trabeculae of corpora cavernosa and trabeculae of corpus spongiosum) or providing a cell filter (as in the trabecular meshwork of the eye.)

Multiple perforations in a septum may reduce it to a collection of trabeculae, as happens to the walls of some of the pulmonary alveoli in emphysema.

Trabecula is a genus of very small sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs or micromolluscs in the family Pyramidellidae, the pyrams and their allies, and the subfamily Chrysallidinae, a large taxon of minute marine gastropods with an intorted protoconch.