Lecture 01 Summary, Sept 06/17 (O’Connor)

Course Intro, Histological Techniques

Ch 1, pp 1-12 (Gartner & Hiatt 4th Ed.)
No need to memorize Table 1.1 (Common Histological Stains and Reactions)
No need to read section on autoradiography

Course Intro
- Lecture course examining human microscopic anatomy (histology).
- Textbook - Color Textbook of Histology, 4th Edition (Gartner and Hiatt); 2nd & 3rd edition
OK, but page numbers will be slightly out of register (you do not need the CD)
• Textbook is required: exam questions can come from readings that are not covered in
lecture
• Netter’s Essential Histology (Ovalle and Nahimey) – used for summer course, not
suitable for this course b/c text is less extensive (images are excellent, so good as a
supplement)
- There is an expectation that students that are taking this course have a basic knowledge of
cell biology (ie. BIOL200). If not, students may have to do extra reading using a modern
cell biology textbook, as background. Any good Cell Biology textbook is fine.
- UBC CONNECT course website will have lecture powerpoints and lecture summaries.
Sample exam questions will also be posted and a discussion/bulletin board will be
available beginning the week of Sept 11th.
- There will be one practice online quiz that will be open the week of Sept 18th to Sept 25th
on CONNECT.
- There will be four 4 online quizzes worth 5% of the course mark each (20% total;
mandatory) throughout the course beginning the week of Oct 2nd to Oct 9th.
• Quizzes not timed, but once started you have to finish it
- There will be one midterm worth 20% of the course mark (mandatory) during class time
on Monday Oct 16th.
- The final exam, which will be cumulative, worth 60% of the course mark (mandatory)
- For details please see Course Syllabus available in the 'Handouts' folder on CONNECT.

Histological Basics and Techniques

- Histology (def'n): study of cells, tissue, and organs at the microscopic level.
- For structures 0.25 µm to 1 mm use light microscope; 0.2 nm to 0.25 µm use electron
microscope (transmission and scanning).
- Processing tissue: fix (crosslink protein and maintain tissue architecture); dehydrate
(remove water); embed (infiltrate/embed tissue with hard material that can be cut into
thin slices); section (cut thin slices of embedded tissue); stain (light microscopy -
histochemical for reactive chemical groups such as charge (i.e. Hematoxylin and Eosin =
H&E; generally identifies classes of molecules); immunocytochemical (i.e. with antibodies
to identify specific molecules); electron microscopy - osmium for transmission E.M. =
ultra-thin sections of detailed subcellular structure; gold/metal coating for scanning E.M.
= 3D-like image.
- Fluorescent tags imaged using confocal laser light microscopy can be used to optically
section and make digital 3D reconstructions (see textbook pg 7 and Figure 1.8 on pg 8).
- Magnification (ability to enlarge an image) vs. resolution (smallest distance between two
objects which can be seen as 2 separate objects)

Please Note: The orientation of the 'section' cut from the fixed and embedded block of
tissue is very important (see Fig 1.2 on pg 4 in textbook).
Important Histological Definitions
- Tissue: a group of similar cells and surrounding extracellular matrix and extracellular fluid
(also known as 'intercellular').
- 4 major 'basic' tissue types = epithelia, connective tissue, muscle, nervous tissue. These will
be fully described and explained in lectures 5-13 of the course before the midterm
- Organs are made up of groups of tissues that act together to carry out specific bodily
functions.