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Colonocyte
Colonocyte: absorptive epithelial cell of the colon, also called colonic enterocyte. Oxidizes microbial butyrate via β-oxidation for 60-80% of its energy, creating hypoxia that stabilizes HIF, maintains barrier function, and sustains anaerobic microbiota; Warburg metabolism in cancer reverses butyrate's effect.
COMP
COMP (cartilage oligomeric matrix protein, TSP-5, THBS5) is a 524,000-Da pentameric extracellular matrix glycoprotein of cartilage and tendon; mutations cause pseudoachondroplasia and multiple epiphyseal dysplasia, and serum COMP is an osteoarthritis biomarker.
Complex I deficiency
Complex I deficiency is a mitochondrial disease in which the first enzyme of the respiratory chain shows markedly reduced activity, accounting for about a third of childhood mitochondrial disease cases.
Congenital cataract-hypertrophic cardiomyopathy-mitochondrial myopathy syndrome
Congenital cataract-hypertrophic cardiomyopathy-mitochondrial myopathy syndrome, or Sengers syndrome, is a rare autosomal recessive mitochondrial disorder caused mainly by AGK mutations, featuring congenital cataracts, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, myopathy, and lactic acidosis.
Conjunctival epithelial cell
Conjunctival epithelial cell, also called conjunctival keratinocyte or goblet cell, forms the 3-5 layer non-keratinized epithelium of the eye; goblet cells secrete MUC5AC mucin, and both types arise from bipotent forniceal stem cells.
Connective tissue
Connective tissue: one of the four basic animal tissue types, cells embedded in abundant extracellular matrix of collagen, elastic, and reticular fibers plus ground substance; includes loose and dense connective tissue proper and specialized adipose, cartilage, bone, blood, and lymphatic tissue.
Connective tissue cell
Connective tissue cell (CL:0002320): any cell of the body's supporting framework tissue, including fibroblasts, adipocytes, chondrocytes, and osteocytes; mesoderm- or neural crest-derived, matrix-secreting, central to wound healing and fibrosis.
Contractile cell
Contractile cell (Cell Ontology CL:0000183): a cell generating force via actin-myosin interaction. Four groups: muscle cells, myofibroblasts, pericytes, myoepithelial cells; also drives cytokinesis and migration.
Corneal endothelial cell
Corneal endothelial cell: the hexagonal, ~5 µm-thick posterior corneal monolayer (neural crest origin) whose Na+/K+-ATPase pump keeps the cornea clear; density falls from ~3,000 to ~2,500 cells/mm², measured by specular microscopy, replaceable by cell injection therapy approved in Japan.
Corneal epithelial cell
Corneal epithelial cell, also called corneal epithelial cell (CEC); a cell of the corneal epithelium, the 50 μm, 5–7-layer nonkeratinized ectodermal barrier renewing the eye's front surface from limbal stem cells, distinct from conjunctival and endothelial cells.
Cornification
Cornification (keratinization, GO:0070268) is the programmed cell death of epidermal keratinocytes that produces corneocytes of the stratum corneum via transglutaminase-crosslinked cornified envelopes, distinct from apoptosis.
Correlative light and electron microscopy
Correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM) images the same specimen by fluorescence microscopy and then electron microscopy, so a labeled molecule's identity can be read against its fine structure.
Cortical cell of adrenal gland
Cortical cell of adrenal gland (adrenocortical cell, CL:0002097): steroid hormone secreting cell of the adrenal cortex, arranged in zona glomerulosa, fasciculata, and reticularis, producing aldosterone, cortisol, and androgens from cholesterol under ACTH and RAAS control.
Corticotroph
Corticotroph (corticotropic cell, corticotrope): ACTH-secreting endocrine cell of the anterior pituitary in the HPA axis; controlled by CRH, derives ACTH from POMC; its adenomas cause Cushing's disease.
Crista
Crista (plural cristae), an inward fold of the mitochondrial inner membrane housing oxidative phosphorylation machinery; shaped by MICOS, OPA1, ATP synthase dimers, and cardiolipin; junctions 10–15 nm.
Cryo-electron microscopy of vitreous sections
Cryo-electron microscopy of vitreous sections (CEMOVIS) is an electron microscopy method in which vitrified biological samples are cut into ultrathin sections and imaged in their native, hydrated state.
Cryo-electron tomography
Cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) is an electron microscopy technique that reconstructs 3D volumes of vitrified, flash-frozen biological samples, imaging membranes and macromolecules inside cells at 2 to 4 nm resolution.
Cryo-focused ion beam milling
Cryo-focused ion beam (cryo-FIB) milling is a specimen-preparation technique that sputters frozen cells into electron-transparent lamellae, letting cryo-electron tomography resolve macromolecular complexes in their native cellular environment.
Cryofixation
Cryofixation is a sample-preparation method for electron microscopy that cools biological specimens within milliseconds, turning their water into amorphous vitreous ice that preserves near-native cellular structure.
Cryopreservation
Cryopreservation (cryobanking) cools cells, tissues, or organs to very low temperatures, typically liquid nitrogen at −196°C, for future use. Two methods, slow freezing (~1°C/min) and ultra-rapid vitrification, preserve gametes, embryos, and stem cells; whole-organ cryopreservation remains experimental.
Crystallin accumulating cell
Crystallin accumulating cell: the lens fiber cell of the vertebrate eye, which loads α, β, and γ-crystallins at over 500 mg/ml for lifelong transparency, then loses organelles and protein turnover, so aggregation causes cataract.
Culture Diffusion Chambers
Culture diffusion chambers, also called semipermeable chambers or tissue cages, are devices for growing cells or tissues in vitro or implanted in vivo within solute-permeable walls, used for hemopoiesis, bone formation, drug transport, and immunologic studies.
Cultured cell
Cultured cell: a human, plant, or animal cell adapted to grow in the laboratory, also called cell culture material. Distinguished by culture type (primary, immortalized like HeLa, stem cells), standard 37°C/5% CO2 conditions, and uses in drug testing and research.
Cuproptosis
Cuproptosis, also called copper-induced cell death, is a copper-dependent regulated cell death pathway named by Tsvetkov et al. in 2022, driven by copper binding to lipoylated TCA cycle proteins such as DLAT, causing protein aggregation, Fe-S cluster loss, and proteotoxic stress.
Curare
Curare is the South American arrow and dart poison whose alkaloids (d-tubocurarine from Chondrodendron, Strychnos species) competitively block nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, causing respiratory paralysis; introduced into anesthesia by Griffith and Johnson in 1942.
CW-2
CW-2 (CW2, CVCL_1151, RCB0778) is a human colon adenocarcinoma cell line from a 55-year-old Japanese woman, CEA-positive, MSI-high, with KRAS Pro140His and TP53 Pro47Pro mutations, used in colorectal cancer and drug screening research.
Cyclic immunofluorescence
Cyclic immunofluorescence (CycIF) is an imaging method that repeatedly stains, images, and strips the same tissue or cell sample, measuring up to 60 proteins; the tissue variant, t-CyCIF, was introduced in 2018.
Cyclin
Cyclins: regulatory proteins with a cyclin box domain that bind and activate cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) to drive the cell cycle; canonical types D, E, A, B; Tim Hunt shared the 2001 Nobel Prize; cyclin D–CDK4/6 inhibitors treat breast cancer.
Cyclin P/U
Cyclin P/U (InterPro IPR012389, Negative regulatory factor PREG) is a cyclin-like protein family of P-type cyclins regulating CDKs; found in plants and yeast Pho80, absent from animals, linked to nutritional sensing and cell cycle control.
Cycloheximide
Cycloheximide (also known as Actidione or CHX) is a glutarimide antibiotic isolated from Streptomyces griseus that inhibits protein synthesis in eukaryotic cells by blocking translation.