In this video, we're going to discuss the 5th and final commonly recognized characteristic of epithelial tissue, which is that epithelial tissue is highly regenerative, meaning that epithelia has the capacity to divide rapidly. And so if we take a moment to think about this, this actually makes a lot of sense. Recall from our previous lesson videos that a key feature of most epithelial tissue is that it forms a boundary immediately adjacent to open space. We know that epithelial tissue is important for covering body surfaces and organs and lining internal body cavities. Because epithelial tissue forms this boundary, it's going to be subject to the environment, and it's going to be subject to physical stresses and pressures from the environment, such as friction, for example.
And so this can cause damage to epithelial tissue cells and it can cause epithelial tissue cells to rub off and be lost. These damaged or lost epithelial tissue cells need to be replaced by dividing epithelia. This is why epithelial tissue has the capacity to divide rapidly. Now it turns out that the epithelial tissue cells that are closest to the connective tissue that underlies it have the highest capacity to divide. The reason for that is pretty simple.
It's because the underlying connective tissue is vascular, and so it has blood vessels that contain nutrients. The epithelial tissue cells that are closest to the underlying connective tissue are going to have more direct access to the nutrients, and that is going to allow them to have a greater capacity to divide. As the epithelial tissue cells get further and further away from the underlying connective tissue, usually their capacity to divide also decreases. Now because epithelial tissue cells divide rapidly, this is what makes them subject to cancer. In fact, most cancers actually develop from epithelial tissue.
Recall that cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrollable cell growth, and usually mutations cause those cells to become cancers. Every single time a cell divides, there's a small chance of mutations occurring. The more that a cell divides, the greater the chances that a mutation can occur that will lead to cancer. This is why most cancers develop from epithelial tissue because they have to have this ability to divide rapidly. This here concludes our lesson on the commonly recognized characteristic of epithelial tissue, and we'll be able to get some practice applying these concepts as we move forward.
So I'll see you all in our next video.