A patchlike junction found between adjacent cells in epithelial tissues that helps strengthen the tissue by binding the cells together while allowing movement of materials within the intercellular space. It consists of a discrete cluster of fibres running across a space, some 25 nm wide, between the two cells. On either side, these fibres are anchored beneath the plasma membrane of each cell within a proteinaceous cytoplasmic plaque, from which more fibres extend into the cytoplasm of the cell. Hemidesmosomes are similar to desmosomes but anchor the cell to underlying extracellular matrix. See also cell junction.