By the end of the year, we hope that you will have acquired a reasonable working knowledge of:

1. how cells associate to perform the functions for which they are specialized, and
2. how organized groups of cells (tissues) are arranged to form the organ systems of the body. 

While the emphasis in histology is on the structure of cells, tissues and organs, structure has very little meaning without understanding the function, much of which is also presented in the other components of the curriculum.  The new medical curriculum, adopted in 2003, emphasizes teaching comparable subjects at about the same time, and we ask that you try and correlate structure and function.  Most diseases cause structural abnormalities that result in the problems with which you, as a physician, must contend.  One reason for studying histology (the normal structure) is so that you can better understand a pathological (abnormal) change and the consequences of that change.

You will be spending most of your time studying two dimensional sections of three dimensional structures, and will encounter a number of atypical perspectives caused by the plane of section (imagine how an orange might look if it were sectioned in sagittal, parasagittal, equatorial and diagonal planes.  The appearance of the orange sections is quite different depending upon the plane of section--the same variation in appearance occurs in tissue and organs because of the angle of sectioning).  Try to find a typical perspective for your introduction to a new tissue or organ (use your atlas as a guide).  Then try to imagine what it would look like in three dimensions.

A.        Required atlas: Young, et al. 2006. Wheater’s Functional Histology, 5th Ed.
B.        Recommended text: Ross and Pawlina. 2005. Histology: A Text and Atlas, 5th Ed.
C.        Digital (virtual) microscope slide collection (available online).
D.        Laboratory Manual (hard copy provided and available online)
E.        Michigan Medical Histology (MMH):  Computer-based Histology Laboratory Introductions (CD-ROM provided).
G.        Glass slide set and microscope (issued to each student)

A NOTE ABOUT VIRTUAL vs. “REAL” MICROSCOPY

To generate the virtual slide collection, we have taken representative specimens from the glass slide sets and scanned them at high resolution using a computer-controlled microscope.  While this has the advantage of producing a digital image that can be easily viewed and annotated using the viewer program (ImageScope), there are some downsides.  First, the focal plane and depth-of-field of the digital image is fixed, making it difficult to see the more subtle features of some of the cells and tissues you’ll be studying.  Second, a digital slide is just a single, representative specimen, and, as you might imagine, there is frequently quite a lot of variation in how a tissue might appear from slide to slide.  To get a more general idea of the microscopic anatomy of tissues and organs, it can be helpful to look at many specimens.  For these reasons, we have retained the glass slide sets and microscopes, and you are strongly encouraged to take advantage of this additional resource.  

HISTOLOGY LEARNING RESOURSES

All of the materials intended to serve as histology learning aids are available via links on the Histology Web Site.   This web site contains everything related to the histology course, including the schedule, laboratory manual, PowerPoint lecture images, lookalike and review images, etc. Note that the lectures and many of our review materials contain copyrighted images, so they have placed on the CTools site and are accessible only to currentlly enrolled students.

For the most part, each laboratory session is preceded by a lecture (2 lectures in some sessions).  Most lectures begin at 1:10 PM in West Lecture Hall.  Please consult your daily calendar for each lecture and laboratory hours.  The lecture should serve as a study guide for each topic area.  The lecture contents should also serve as a guide for the exam and quiz questions since lecturers formulate the majority of the questions.  Most of the lecture slides (images) will be placed in the Histology resource pages on the web for you to view after the lecture.  It would be very useful to read the relevant text chapter(s) before the lecture and use the MMH program (CD-ROM) as a preview.

Histology is one of the few basic science courses left in the curriculum with a regularly scheduled laboratory.  This provides you with an opportunity for "active" independent learning and also for interaction with faculty.  As you progress through the course, we would appreciate your comments regarding things that are unclear, or that are particularly helpful in the lab guide, as we revise it every year.  Bring your atlas and this lab guide to lab.  Your responsibilities in caring for microscopes and histology loan collections are discussed in your Histology Loan Collection Agreement.  Please read that form.  Please don't abuse course rules; they are designed to help you learn as well as to conserve teaching material for future classes.  The teaching laboratories are also microbiology laboratories, so no eating or drinking in the labs.  We plan to have the histology labs open 24 hours, but keep in mind that other classes use these rooms as well.

Each weekly quiz will have about 3 to 5 histology questions per topic area covered.   The questions will be either text- or image-based multiple-choice types.  Images may be diagrams, electron micrographs, or light micrographs.  All of the quiz questions will be done on-line.  The sequence final examinations will also be given on-line and will similarly consist of either text- or image-based questions with about 3 to 5 questions per topic area on the sequence final exams.   There will generally be a combined total (quiz + final exam) of 8 questions per topic area.  The quiz and exam questions will weigh equally.

If you have any problems, including those with microscopes or slides, see the faculty member responsible for your laboratory section or the course director.  A list of the course faculty with relevant information can be found in the Faculty Contact section of the course webpage.

Please note that microscopes and slide boxes must not be removed from the lab (honor code violation).  You may borrow up to 20 slides at a time in the small box in your locker.  Please be sure to return slides to the correctly numbered slot.  The current price for replacement slides is $8.00.  For complex reasons (mostly money!) our slide collections are in perilous shape, but they are not all that bad compared to other schools both with respect to content and quality.  Please note, however, that some of the slides are virtually irreplaceable, so treat them with the care and respect that you would give the other tools of your trade.

It is important that you report missing/stolen keys immediately to your laboratory instructor or the course director, as we have had incidences of microscope theft.

CHECKING SLIDE BOXES:  Get out your slide boxes from the locker under your bench.  (Be sure to lock it at the end of lab, as thefts have occurred).  Be sure to take out the histology loan collection boxes, since the locker is shared by other courses and there are slide boxes for these other courses.   Next, check for missing or broken slides.  You should have the slides present in the box that are listed in the top of the box unless otherwise noted.  List any missing or broken slides on the Loan Agreement handed out to you, read and sign the agreement and give it to your lab instructor.  Also, turn in any extra slides you find in slots that are listed as empty.

MICHIGAN MEDICAL HISTOLOGY (MMH):  The MMH is a computer-based series of laboratory lessons.  A CD of MMH will be loaned to you for the semester and you arerequired to go through all Histology lessons.  If you find errors, please let us know.  No matter how many times we go through the lessons, we miss things due to over-familiarity, a complex assembly process, and rapidly failing eyesight!

REFERENCES TO FIGURES IN THIS LAB GUIDE:   The references in the LAB GUIDE are to Wheater’s Functional Histology, 5th edition, designated “W” followed by page and figure numbers. BRING YOUR ATLAS TO CLASS!  In addition, you may be referred to the recommended Ross and Pawlina text: Histology: A Text and Atlas, 5th edition, designated by an “R,” followed by page and figure numbers.

LOOKING AT SLIDES:  The following pages describe the use of your microscope.  After you have read them practice using slide #1, which is a slide of the liver.  Be sure that you can recognize nuclei (blue/purple on this slide) and know approximately where the cell boundaries are (these are difficult to see in all areas of the slide, try for lightly stained cytoplasm).  Practice getting the image in focus at all magnifications.  Manipulate the light and condenser to get the best image in terms of resolution.  See if you can find different shaped nuclei (round, oblong).

ELECTRON MICROGRAPHS:   Electron micrograph wall charts in the hall are for the most part, micrographs provided by Dr. Johannes A. G. Rhodin, who also authored “An Atlas of Histology” (Oxford Press, 1974).   This text is no longer in print and we have limited copies, so we have opted not put them out in the labs lest they should walk away or get damaged.  However, anyone interested in looking at the text may check out a copy from the histology prep room.   For your convenience, we have also digitized the EMs and put them online.  More detailed comments on electron micrographs appear at the end of the Epithelia section (the first lesson in this laboratory guide).