Click on the image or the + sign to view larger image		Mucous-producing cells in the large intestine All along the colon (part of the large intestine) are glands called crypts that produce mucous in specialized cells, releasing it into the colon where it helps the smooth movement of material through the gut. These three confocal images are all sections through these colonic crypts showing the large mucous-producing cells surrounding a small central tube carries the mucous up into the colon to do its work. These mucous-producing cells are red in the left panel, purple in the centre and yellow on the right. Each crypt is hexagonal, pushed by its neighbours into this efficient spatial arrangement. On the left is a single hexagonal crypt abutting its neighbours, in the centre an isolated, unconstrained, round crypt and on the right a lower magnification of a region showing multiple hexagonal crypts. Credit: Michela Schäppi