Introductory Histology Tutorial II
Non-epithelial tissues
Human Anatomy & Physiology I
Assembled by Stephen Shoemake
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NAVIGATION
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which slide you are on currently.
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INSTRUCTIONS
This exercise is set up so that the first thing you see is
an image of a tissue without any explanatory text. Try to
guess what type of tissue you are looking by identifying
unique structures or characteristics you can see in the
picture. After you have guessed, click again to get the
answer and an explanation of characteristics you should be
looking for.
If you know which image you want to see, clicking on the
name of the image in the index will take you directly to an
image of that tissue.
Index: Non-epithelial tissues
Quick Quiz
Nervous Tissue
Multipolar neuron
Muscle Tissue
Skeletal Muscle
Cardiac Muscle
Smooth Muscle
Connective Tissue
Loose connective t.
Dense connective t.
Blood
Adipose tissue
Hyaline cartilage
Elastic cartilage
Fibrocartilage
Bone
nuclei
striations
This is skeletal muscle tissue. Note the multiple nuclei at
the edges of the muscle fibers. The striations are the
overlapping patterns of muscle proteins in each fiber.
nuclei
This is smooth muscle. Note that the nuclei are single,
centrally located, and oblong. The shape of the nucleus
mimics the shape of the cell it is in. Smooth muscle
cells are described as “fusiform” in shape.
This is cardiac(heart) muscle. Note the centrally located
nuclei, striations, and intercalated disks.
This is blood, which is classified as a connective tissue.
Note that this image contains both red blood cells and
white blood cells.
This is adipose (fat) tissue. Virtually all of this slide
is filled with cells. (Single cell circled) Note that
virtually all of the cytoplasm appears empty. This is
where the fat is contained.
This slide is Connective tissue proper. More
specifically, this is loose (areolar) connective tissue.
This tissue contains many collagen and elastin fibers,
but relatively few fibroblasts (connective tissue cells).
Fibers and fluid make up the extracellular matrix.
Contrast this slide with the next slide.
This is also considered Connective tissue proper, but this tissue
is dense connective tissue. Like areolar tissue, it contains few
cells and a lot of fibers. The main difference is that they are
more densely packed here.
This is cartilage, which is characterized by cells located in
“little lakes” called lacunae (several are circled) within a
relatively hard, glassy matrix.
There are 3 different types of cartilage, but you will be able to
recognize each as cartilage if you see these distinct looking
lacunae.
The light colored tissue above is hyaline cartilage. Can
you see the lacunae?
Three are circled in red above. The black dots are the
nuclei of the cells within them. The matrix looks clear.
This is elastic cartilage.
Note that there are visible fibers in the matrix of this
tissue, but you can still see lacunae.
This is fibrocartilage. The fibers in the matrix are
very fine, and the lacunae are difficult to see, but they
are still there. Do you see them?
This is a typical ground bone slide. Each cylindrical
structure you see here is called an osteon, which is the
structural unit of compact bone.
The dark structures indicated are the spaces where the cells
resided when this tissue was alive. Like cartilage, the
“holes” that bone cells rest in are called lacunae, even
though they are less obvious than the ones in cartilage.
This is Nervous tissue. The big, dark cell in the middle
is a multipolar neuron. Note the cellular extensions
which are characteristic of this cell type.
Most multipolar neurons have 1 axon and a
variable number of dendrites.
It’s hard to see axons and dendrites in a real specimen,
because they are obscured by surrounding neuroglial
cells. Normally, though, you can see the beginnings of
them.
Quick Quiz
For each of the following slides, try to
guess which tissue you are looking at.
Before you check the answer, be able to
justify to yourself why you think it is a
specific tissue.
What type of tissue is this?
Answer: Adipose tissue
What type of tissue is this?
Answer: Cardiac muscle
What type of tissue is this?
Answer: Hyaline Cartilage
What type of tissue is this?
Answer: Nervous Tissue
(Large cell is a multipolar neuron.)
What type of tissue is this?
Answer: Skeletal muscle
What type of tissue is this?
Answer: Blood
What type of tissue is this?
Answer: Smooth muscle
What type of tissue is this?
Answer: Bone
The End
Most of the images on this tutorial were taken from one of
two excellent Histology sites on the Internet. Check them
out if you want to see many more images of tissues.
JayDoc HistoWeb:
http://www.kumc.edu/instruction/medicine/anatomy/histoweb/
Loyola University Medical Education Network: Histology
http://www.lumen.luc.edu/lumen/MedEd/Histo/frames/histo_frames.html
I have links to both of these sites on my Web page under
“Miscellaneous links”.