IMMS Practical 1 Flashcards
What is the most commonly used dye combination?
Haematoxylin and Eosin
What does haematoxylin stain?
Stains nuclei and other acidic cell components (e.g. RNA) blue.
What does Eosin stain?
Stains cell cytoplasm and many extracellular fibres pink.
Example of a component that doesn’t stain with H&E?
Extracellular jelly
What can white space indicate on a histology slide?
- artefact
- lumen of a structure
- extra-cellular jelly / other unstained component
What is the epithelium?
Border of cells, sometimes around empty space
What does the PAS stain show?
Shows sugars in magenta
What does the Van Gieson stain show?
Elastic fibres and tissues in brown.
What does Alcian Blue stain show?
Stains mucins blue.
What does a trichrome stain show?
Stains different tissues different colours in the same section.
What are the 6 different shapes of cells?
- rounded / globular
- polygonal
- fusiform
- squamous
- cuboidal
- columnar
What is an example of a rounded cell?
Red blood cells
Why are cells polygonal?
Soft cells squashed together
Examples of fusiform cells?
- smooth muscle
- fibroblasts
What do squamous cells look like?
Flattened, like thin plates.
What makes a cell cuboidal?
A cell that is as tall as it is wide
What makes a cell columnar?
A cell that is taller than it is wide
What are some features of metabolically active cells?
Larger, have nucleoli and lots of cytoplasm.
What are some features of dormant cells?
Smaller, less cytoplasm and single nucleolus
What is the function of the nucleolus?
Forms ribosomal RNA
What is the diameter of the nucleolus?
Around 1 - 3 um
What are the 2 types of chromatin?
Euchromatin, heterochromatin
How can you distinguish between the two types of chromatin?
Euchromatin - lighter areas of nucleus
Heterochromatin - darker areas of nucleus
Where is the cell is DNA located?
95% - nucleus
5% - mitochondria