Intro To Histo Flashcards
Methods of tissue collection
- Needle biopsy (for almost any part of body)
- Endoscopic biopsy (any place accessible through openings in body)
- Transvascular biopsy (available for large blood vessels via catheter)
- Direct excision biopsy (surface of body via scalpel)
- Curettage biopsy (scraping of endometrial lining of uterus)
Tissue prep for light microscopy involves:
- Fixation
- Dehydration and clearing
- Embedding
- Sectioning
- Mounting and staining
Methods of fixation
Chemical: Formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde
- causes loss of cell activity
- cross links proteins to arrest changes
Dehydration by alcohol
Rapid freezing by liquid pentane at -160 degrees C
- halts all biological activity
- freeze until needed
What color does hematoxylin stain, and is it acidic or basic? What does it stick to? What is a component that likes hematoxylin called?
- Stains blue; is a BASE
- Acidic
- Basophilic
Types of stains (how they differentiate):
- Differentiate b/w acidic and basic components of cell
- Differentiate fibrous components of extracellular matrix
- Metallic salts that precipitate on tissues to form metal deposits on specific ones (good for TEM)
What color does eosin stain, and is it acidic or basic? What does it stick to? What is a component that likes eosin called?
- Stains pink; is an ACID
- Bases
- Acidophilic
What does toluidine blue stain? What color?
Stains polyanion-rich tissues PURPLE
What parts of the cell stain blue with hematoxylin?
Nucleus, RNA, DNA, parts of the cytoplasm rich in ribosomes - these are all ACIDIC structures and respond to base of hematoxylin
Characteristics of PARAFFIN WAX for embedding:
- What type of microscopy?
- Advantages?
- Disadvantages?
- How thin are the sections?
- Light microscopy
- Good resolution of cell structure and tissue architecture
- Slow (24 hours)
- 5-8 micrometers
Characteristics of ACRYLIC RESIN for embedding:
- What type of microscopy?
- Advantages?
- Disadvantages?
- How thin are the sections?
- High resolution light microscopy; Electron microscopy
- VERY thin sections w/ high resolution
- Doesn’t work with most histological stains; slow (several days)
- 1 micrometer for light, 60-80 nm for EM
Characteristics of FROZEN SECTIONS for embedding:
- What type of microscopy?
- Advantages?
- Disadvantages?
- How thin are the sections?
- All (?)
- Ideal for many stains; enzymatic activity reanimates once thawed out; rapid (minutes/hours)
- None
- THICK sections: 12-20 micrometers
Methylene blue and eosin together form:
Wright’s stain, used for differential staining of blood cells
What does Wright’s stain do, and what colors does it stain?
Differential staining of blood cells: RBC are pink, WBC are blue; both dyes cross cell membranes
Resolution of the human eye
0.1-0.2 mm
Resolution of light microscope
0.25 micrometers