Thin, hairlike appendages, 1 to 20 microns in length and often occurring in large numbers, present on the cells of gram-negative bacteria, particularly Enterobacteriaceae and Neisseria. Unlike flagella, they do not possess motility, but being protein (pilin) in nature, they possess antigenic and hemagglutinating properties. They are of medical importance because some fimbriae mediate the attachment of bacteria to cells via adhesins (ADHESINS, BACTERIAL). Bacterial fimbriae refer to common pili, to be distinguished from the preferred use of "pili", which is confined to sex pili (PILI, SEX).

Descriptor ID	D010861
MeSH Number(s)	A11.284.180.285 A20.843
Concept/Terms	Fimbriae, Bacterial Fimbriae, Bacterial Fimbria, Bacterial Bacterial Fimbriae Pili, Common Common Fimbriae Fimbriae, Common Common Pilus Pilus, Common Common Pili Bacterial Fimbria Common Fimbria Fimbria, Common Bacterial Pilus Bacterial Pilus Bacterial Pili Pili, Bacterial Pilus, Bacterial

Below are MeSH descriptors whose meaning is more general than "Fimbriae, Bacterial".

Below are MeSH descriptors whose meaning is related to "Fimbriae, Bacterial".

Below are MeSH descriptors whose meaning is more specific than "Fimbriae, Bacterial".