Porocytes are tubular cells which make up the pores of a sponge.
Covering the sponge is a layer of cells, very similar to skin, but it's slightly different. To scientists, these cells are known as pinacocytes. In a sponge, pinacocytes are a thin, elastic layer which keeps water out. Between the pinacocytes, there are the porocytes. These let water into the sponge. Myocytes, little muscular cells, open up the porocytes and close them. Once through the pores, water travels down canals. Using the food and oxygen inside of the water the sponge cells stay alive and carry out other processes such as making new sponges and repairing cells.
2) Porocytes- Throughout the pinacocytes, at various intervals, there are porocytes which are each associated with a pore on the surface of the sponge.
Porocytes open the pores and are, in descriptive terms, the "doors" to the passageways, or canals, of the sponge.
Porocytes may complement incurrent (Latin= running in) and excurrent ducts.
These canals correspond to equivalently positioned porocytes on the exterior layer and passages into the spongocoel in the innermost layers of the sponge.
Porocytes on the outer layers of the sponge maintain their uniform position, but the interior structure is slightly dissimilar.
Porocytes are positioned abstractedly upon the pinacocyte layer.
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