In conjunction with their varying functional roles, epithelial cells may exhibit a number of different shapes and may be organized in layers of varying thickness depending upon their location in the body. If the cells are, for instance, extremely thin and plate-like then they are described as squamous epithelial cells, but if they are somewhat cubical in shape then they are dubbed cuboidal cells. Columnar epithelial cells, on the other hand, are elongate and somewhat cylindrical in shape. Also, an epithelial tissue is designated simple epithelium if it is comprised of only a single layer of cells, whereas two or more strata of cells signify stratified epithelium. A pseudostratified epithelium is characterized by the fact that all of the cells of which the tissue consists are in contact with a basement membrane, though they do not all extend to the same surface level.

In this section, the culture of MDCK cells presented was immunofluorescently labeled with primary anti-clathrin (heavy chain) mouse monoclonal antibodies followed by goat anti-mouse Fab fragments conjugated to the cyanine dye Cy3 in order to target the cytoskeletal network. Additionally, peroxisomes present in the culture were immunofluorescently labeled with Cy2 conjugated to goat secondary antibodies directed against rabbit anti-PMP 70 (peroxisomal membrane protein 70) primary antibodies. Nuclei were counterstained with Hoechst 33342. Images were recorded in grayscale with a QImaging Retiga Fast-EXi camera system coupled to an Olympus BX-51 microscope equipped with bandpass emission fluorescence filter optical blocks provided by Omega Optical. During the processing stage, individual image channels were pseudocolored with RGB values corresponding to each of the fluorophore emission spectral profiles.