The nail plate is produced by which structure?

• A. Cuticle
• B. Nail bed
• C. Matrix
• D. Eponychium

Answer: (C)

The nail plate is produced by the matrix, the tissue at the base of the nail where new nail cells form. As these cells divide and keratinize, they are pushed outward under the proximal nail fold, hardening into the hard, translucent keratin that becomes the nail plate you see. The nail bed sits beneath the plate and helps support and nourish it, but it does not create the plate. The cuticle is a protective layer of skin at the base, and the eponychium is the living skin that overlaps the nail plate; neither generates the plate.