Microscope Use, Tissue Classification, and Nervous Tissue

BI 302L Week 1

Microscope use
! Please read Exercise 3 in your Marieb lab manual ! Some common-sense rules ! Be careful: microscopes and slides are fragile and expensive ! Carry scope w/ 2 hands on arm/neck and base ! Do NOT drag the microscopes across the table ! Handle slides by edges only ! Start with 4x objective and coarse focus knob ! When using higher-power objectives use only fine focus knob ! Never use 100x (oil-immersion) objective in this lab ! Turn back to 4x objective and lower stage before removing slide ! Make sure to return slides to proper box and slot ! Be sure you can see the pointer through the eyepiece

coarse

Body planes and sections

3D objects can look very different when viewed in different sections! Tissues can be cut in cross section, longitudinal section or somewhere in between.
(a) cross section (x.s., c.s. on slides), (b) longitudinal section (cut down the bilaterally symmetrical midline, l.s. on slides), and (c) longitudinal sections in different planes.

Some Common histological stains

Staining techniques preferentially color components in cells.

Mallory-Azan H&E stains nuclei blue/purple and cytoplasm pink (make up the majority of our slides) Mason Mason or Mallory-Azan are 3-color stains that stain nuclei red, collagen green or blue and cytoplasm red. (we have several of these) Silver staining stains certain proteins and DNA brown (reticular connective tissue slides)

Epithelial tissue
! General characteristics
! Covers and lines stuff ! A lot of tightly packed cells; forms continuous sheets ! Avascular; relies on diffusion ! Free or Open/apical surface ! Supported by an adhesive basement membrane

Named according to shape

! Squamous: thin and flat (scale-like) cells ! Cuboidal: cube-shaped cells ! Columnar: column-shaped cells

Named according to number of layers

! Simple: one layer ! Stratified: multiple layers

Epithelium

Epithelium: Simple Squamous

Scalelike Flat cells

Simple cuboidal

Epithelium
Simple columnar
The nuclei are usually oval (can be round) shaped and show polarity

Nuclei are round and located in the center of the cell

Epithelium
Stratified squamous Stratified cuboidal
Consists of two, sometimes three layers

Epithelium
Stratified columnar
Nuclei line up in rows

Pseudostratified columnar
All cells contact basement membrane, not all reach apical surface

Transitional
Scalloped apical edge, only in urinary tract

Connective tissue (CT)

Cells are widely spaced within an extensive, often fibrous extracellular (nonliving) matrix which determines the characteristics of each specific CT.

4 categories of CT ! CT proper (fibrous matrix): areolar, adipose, dense regular, dense irregular, reticular ! Cartilage (gel matrix): hyaline, elastic, fibrocartilage ! Bone (solid mineral matrix) ! Blood and lymph (fluid matrix)

Connective Tissue Proper

Areolar CT

Widely spaced cells

Elastic, collagen and reticular fibers (thick and thin) crisscross haphazardly

Lots of extracellular matrix

Connective Tissue Proper

Adipose

! Few nuclei, visible at periphery of cell ! Dont confuse with simple squamous, only one nucleus per cell

Connective Tissue Proper

Reticular CT

! Dark stained reticular fibers ! Numerous nuclei ! Found in Lymphatic Organs and surrounding small blood vessels

Silver staining: Brownish or grayish color

Connective Tissue Proper

Dense Regular CT

! Densely packed parallel collagen fibers ! Nuclei of fibroblasts parallel and flattened ! No lacunae distinguishes it from cartilage ! Fewer nuclei than smooth muscle

Connective Tissue Proper

Dense Irregular CT
! Irregularly arranged collagen fibers ! Marbled or swirly appearance ! Major cell type is fibroblast ! Fewer nuclei than smooth muscle

Connective Tissue
Hyaline Cartilage

! Distinctive lacunae, often paired

Connective Tissue
Elastic Cartilage

! Distinctive, large, often paired lacunae ! Extensive dark elastic fibers

Connective Tissue
Fibrocartilage ! Thick somewhat parallel collagen fibers (red arrows) ! distinct lacunae (blue and black arrows)
Intervertebral disc

Connective Tissue
Bone ! Concentric rings (like tree rings) of Haversian (dense) bone are unmistakable ! Spongy (cancellous or trabecular) bone has spicules.

Spongy Bone

Haversian Bone

Connective Tissue
Blood ! Numerous round, red blood cells in a featureless matrix of plasma ! White blood cells less numerous and distinct

Muscle tissue
! Functions to contract (shorten), causing movement ! Consists of long cells (fibers) arranged in parallel ! 3 subtypes you DO need to know
! Skeletal muscle ! Smooth muscle ! Cardiac muscle

Skeletal muscle
! Straight, parallel fibers ! Striations ! Peripheral nuclei

Cardiac muscle
! Uninucleate cells ! Intercalated discs ! Branching fibers

Smooth muscle
! Spindle shaped cells tightly packed together ! Many more nuclei than dense regular or irregular connective tissue

Nervous tissue
Neuron Cell Bodies

Anatomical Structures of Neurons and Neuroglia

Axon Hillock

Structural Types of Neurons

Multipolar:
!One axon, several dendrites !Most common

Unipolar:
!One short process that divides into peripheral and central processes !Generally are sensory (conduct impulses to CNS)

Bipolar:
!2 processes !Rare; found in olfactory epithelium, retina, and cochlear/vestibular ganglia

Bipolar

Unipolar

Multipolar

Functional Types of Neurons

Neuroglia
Schwann cells- PNS -myelinates one axon OligodendrocytesCNS -myelinates many axons

Nervous tissue: longitudinal sections of nerves

Nervous tissue: cross sections of nerves