MOD 1 UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION TO HISTOLOGY

Question 1

to preserve a section of tissue or organ for histologic examination

Answer 1

FIXATION

Question 2

most commonly used fixative for light microcopy is

Answer 2

formaldehyde

Question 3

After the tissue specimen is fixed, which is usually overnight, water must first be
removed from the fixed specimen

Answer 3

POSTFIXATION

Question 4

Before the specimen can be
embedded in a paraffin (wax) medium for cutting, it must be cleared of alcohol by passing
it through several changes of such clearing agents as?

Answer 4

xylene

Question 5

The paraffin
block is then trimmed to the size of the specimen and mounted in an instrument called

Answer 5

microtome

Question 6

precisely advances the paraffin block so that the sections are
cut at specific and predetermined increments with a steel knife.

Answer 6

microtome

Question 7

For histologic examination
of the specimen, the sections are normally cut at

Answer 7

5 to 10 mm thickness

Question 8

serves as an adhesive
medium for the specimen

Answer 8

albumen

Question 9

allows for
viewing of the stained specimen on the glass slide with the light microscope.

Answer 9

coverslip

Question 10

Structures in the specimen that stain most readily with basic stains are called

Answer 10

basophilic

Question 11

those that stain with acidic stains are called

Answer 11

acidophilic

Question 12

most
common stains that are used for histologic sections are

Answer 12

hematoxylin and eosin stains

Question 13

small pieces of tissue are placed in solutions of chemicals that cross-link proteins and inactivate degradative enzymes

Answer 13

fixation

Question 14

tissue is transferred through a series of increasingly concentrated alcohol solutions, which removes all water

Answer 14

dehydration

Question 15

alcohol is removed in organic solvents in which both alcohol and paraffin are miscible

Answer 15

clearing

Question 16

tissue is then placed in melted paraffin until it becomes completely infiltrated

Answer 16

infiltration

Question 17

paraffin-infiltrated tissue is placed in a small mold with melted paraffin and allowed to harden

Answer 17

embedding

Question 18

the resulting paraffin block is trimmed to expose the tissue for sectioning (slicing) on a microtome

Answer 18

trimming

Question 19

an epithelial cell that has a flattened shape, they are seen in sections cut edgewise so they appear very thin, and you see
the flattened nucleus

Answer 19

squamous

Question 20

an epithelial cell with equal height and width

Answer 20

cuboidal

Question 21

an epithelial cell with the height distinctly greater than the width

Answer 21

columnar

Question 22

These terms describe ball-shaped or egg-shaped cells

Answer 22

spherical or ovoid

Question 23

These cells are elongated and tapering at the two ends

Answer 23

fusiform

Question 24

Multiple flattened surfaces give the appearance of a pentagon, hexagon, and so
on

Answer 24

polyhedral

Question 25

These cells have a distinct orientation with one end of the cell being different from
the other

Answer 25

polarized

Question 26

The cell that appears to have vacuoles
filling the apical two thirds of its cytoplasm, a mucus-secreting cell

Answer 26

goblet cell

Question 27

These vesicles stain because they retained at least some of their contents
during tissue preparation

Answer 27

granules

Question 28

This type of cytoplasm contains what appear to be empty
holes. Usually, these represent either lipid droplets or vesicles whose contents were washed
out during processing of the tissue.

Answer 28

Vacuolated cytoplasm

Question 29

TRUE OR FALSE

Cells that are inactive in protein synthesis will usually have fairly large nuclei,
prominent nucleoli, and a preponderance of euchromatin.

Answer 29

FALSE

“active”

Question 30

TRUE OR FALSE

Nuclei of most cells show us a mixture of euchromatin
(dispersed, lightly stained, accessible to transcription) and heterochromatic (condensed,
darkly stained, inactive).

Answer 30

TRUE

Question 31

TRUE OR FALSE

Typically, nucleoli are present in a nucleus that has most of its chromatin in
the form of euchromatin

Answer 31

TRUE

Question 32

TRUE OR FALSE

A simple nucleus appears as a double structure that can have
a variety of shapes (round, oval, indented, fusiform, and irregular).

Answer 32

FALSE

“single structure”

Question 33

TRUE OR FALSE

segmented nucleus,
appears in sections as two or more distinct parts (lobes)

Answer 33

TRUE

Question 34

TRUE OR FALSE

many cells are not compact spheres or simple geometric shapes but have other shapes
that can be extremely complex

Answer 34

TRUE

Question 35

Uses ordinary light & the
colors are imparted by tissue
staining

Answer 35

Bright-field microscopy

Question 36

often used to image specific features of small specimens such as microbes

Answer 36

fluorescence microscopy

Question 37

optical microscopy technique that converts phase shifts in light passing through a transparent specimen to brightness changes in the image

Answer 37

Phase-contrast
Microscopy

Question 38

provides the ability to collect clear images from a thin section of a thick sample with low background and minimal out-of-focus interference

Answer 38

Confocal microscopy

Question 39

detection method in which X-ray or photographic film is exposed to emissions from radioisotopes on TLC plates to produce an image on the film.

Answer 39

Autoradiography

Question 40

type of inverted microscope where the light source is placed above the specimen rather than shining from below

Answer 40

Tissue culture microscopes

Question 41

used to demonstrate the activity of enzymes present on tissues

Answer 41

Enzyme Histochemistry

Question 42

a powerful technique that exploits the specific binding between an antibody and antigen to detect and localize specific antigens in cells and tissue

Answer 42

Immunohistochemistry (IHC)

Question 43

utilizes an unlabeled primary antibody to detect the antigen of interest in the tissue

Answer 43

Indirect immunohistochemistry