How to Use Histology Web Pages
In these web-pages you will find extensively hyper-linked notes and images
summarizing the basics of tissue organization in the human body. The
organization of this material follows the organization of the SIU
School of Medicine Year One Curriculum.
About this
resource (pdf).
Caveat (source of images): Although the principal
subject of these webpages is human histology, many images illustrate
specimens from other species. These images are representative of mammalian
histology generally (including human), although some details may depart
from the human condition. The source for most micrographs is a decades-old
collection of commercially-prepared slides (mostly purchased from Turtox);
some of these tissue specimens come from non-human mammals. (Many
of the Virtual
Slidebox specimens come from the same source.)
These notes are an ancillary resource, NOT a substitute for textbooks
or for time spent studying real specimens with a microscope. If
you use this on-line study aid, please refer to your textbooks
and atlases for richer, more detailed information.
- Rhodin's An Atlas of Histology (in the MRC) is an essential
resource, since this website does not include electron micrographs.
Also available online, Rhodin's
An Atlas of Histology.
This histology resource is divided into four major blocks (see top of this
page).
- The INTRO block provides basic
essentials for further understanding.
- The remaining three blocks offer material specific to the three curricular
units -- CRR, SSB,
and ERG.
- The HISTO HOME page provides
links to each unit.
- Each unit opens with an index page.
Each
index page links to Study Guides for particular topics.
- Highlighted keywords link to definitions, explanations,
or examples.
- Extensive
cross-links allow access to the same basic information from several
different directions.
- Thumbnail images (see example at right) are
links to larger, labelled images with additional notes. (To
browse images, see the image index.)
- Some limited self-assessment
materials are available.
- NAVIGATION:
- These pages are designed for browsing. You are
encouraged to follow links from topic to topic as desired. Your
browser's "BACK" button may be most convenient for returning.
- At the top of each page is a menu bar
linking to related index pages. The HISTO
HOME page always provides a starting point to find major topics.
- Since hyperlinks are an essential feature, these web
pages are intended only for on-line use. However, if you must
have print copies of these webpages, click here.
Emphasis throughout is on normal histology, although illustrative
examples of pathologic histology are presented
occasionally.
All images have been digitally manipulated. This
includes routine adjustment of color balance, contrast, and sharpness. In
some cases, image details have been modified to emphasize selected features
or to minimize distracting artefacts.
SIU students: You are invited to e-mail
questions, comments, requests, and suggestions directly to Prof.
King. This takes just a few seconds: From
any page, click on the e-mail link at bottom, type a quick message (e.g.,
"I don't understand so-and-so", or "How about more info on
[topic]", or "Please add a link from [page] to [topic]" or
"There's an error on [page]"). In most cases, a response should
be received during the next workday (if not sooner).
Additional Resources
texts / atlases / references
/ access to literature
Texts. The following are examples of good introductory texts,
all roughly equivalent in depth and coverage, appropriate for the level of
understanding expected in our current year-one curriculum. Each student
should have ready access to a text at this level.
Mescher, Junqueira's Basic Histology: Text &
Atlas, 12th ed. (2010).
Ross & Pawlina, Histology: A Text and Atlas,
6th ed. (2011).
Kierszenbaum, Histology and Cell Biology: An Introduction
to Pathology, 3nd edition (20011). Includes
extensive correlates with biochemistry / cell biology / pathology; very
dry style.
Stevens & Lowe, Human Histology, 3rd
ed. (2005).
Concise, with illustrative pathology but minimal physiology.
Young, Lowe, Stevens & Heath, Wheater's Functional Histology:
A Text and Colour Atlas, 5th ed. (2006). Emphasizes
tissue function as well as structure.
Telser, A. G. et al. Elsevier's Integrated Histology, (2007).
Concise, includes cross-references to other disciplines.
NOTE: For nervous tissue, chapters
2 and 4 in Kandel, Schwartz, & Jessell, Principles of Neural
Science, 4th ed., are recommended, with chapters 3 and 5 through 9 for
additional detail.
Your choice of a text at this level may be based on availability
or on personal preference for style (which can differ markedly among texts).
Atlases. Just as a single snapshot cannot the
convey the impact of a landscape or the personality of friend, so a single
micrograph is seldom sufficient to catch the full character of a tissue. Since
any given text typically illustrates each organ/region with only one or two
images, students are encouraged to view several sources for multiple images.
Histology atlases (some are examples listed below) are quite
useful for this purpose. Personal possession of an atlas should not
be necessary; several different atlases are available in the MRC.
Rhodin, An Atlas of Histology (1976);
Rhodin's
An Atlas of Histology Online.
This is an excellent source for electron microscope
images, organized by organ system. Note that each section begins
with low-magnification images and leads through higher and higher magnification,
making it easy to appreciate images in organ and tissue context. This
book is usefully kept alongside your light microscope and treated as if
it were an "extra-high power" objective. Although this book
is out of print, multiple copies are available in the MRC.
Also available online, Rhodin's
An Atlas of Histology.
Leboffe, A Photographic Atlas of Histology (2003), ISBN:
0-89582-605-4 .
Ross, Pawlina & Barnash, Atlas of Descriptive Histology
(2009), ISBN 978-0-87893-696-0 .
Berman & Milikowski, Color Atlas of Basic Histology, 3rd
edition (2003).
Milikowski & Berman, Color Atlas of Basic Histopathology (1997).
An excellent resource for images of particular pathologies.
Schechter & Wood, Ultrastructure: An Interactive Virtual
Electron Microscope (2005).
A new CD resource just published by Sinauer. Like the out-of-print
atlas by Rhodin (above), a laptop running this CD might be useful alongside
your light microscope and treated as if it were an "extra-high power"
objective.
Gartner & Hiatt. Color Atlas of Histology,
5th edition, 2009.
[These are only examples. Any book labelled as a "atlas"
of histology will offer a useful collection of images, for comparison and
contrast with other sources and with real specimens.]
References. The following are much more substantial (heavier,
much more detail, 1200 vs. 400 pp.), better for reference than for introductory
exposure. Students should be aware that such resources exist, but personal
ownership is not recommended.
Stevens et al., Wheater's Basic Histopathology. 4th
edition, 2002. Concise introduction to the application of histology
to pathology. May be appropriate if you have already had a course
in histology, or if you wish to read beyond the basics of normal histology.
Mills, Histology for Pathologists, 3rd ed.
(2007). New edition of Sternberg (below).
Sternberg, Histology for Pathologists, 2nd
ed. (1998). Excellent source for details of
normal histology that are not included in most introductory texts.
Kumar, Abbas, Fausto & Aster, Robbins
& Cotran's Pathologic Basis of Disease, 8th ed.
(2010). The classic textbook for pathology.
Fawcett, Textbook of Histology, 12th
ed. (2001).
Several other histology websites
offer additional resources for information and images.
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Access to literature. Histology as a
scientific discipline has deep roots, beginning in the 1800s. Although
internet searching can readily discover recent research papers, the accumulated
results from nearly two hundred years of microscopic research are not yet
adequately represented on the internet. And, unfortunately, "starter"
lists of older references (which were once a standard feature of histology
texts) have fallen out of favor in newer "lightweight" popular texts.
For initial access to primary research reports in the scientific literature
(often by way of secondary reviews), check the chapter-by-chapter listings
in the following older texts. At least some of these volumes should
be accessible in any good university library.
Weiss, Leon., Histology: Cell and Tissue Biology, 5th ed.,
Elsevier Science Publ., New York (1983) [also earlier editions, by Greep,
Roy O.; by Greep & Weiss; and by Weiss & Greep].
Bloom, W., & Fawcett, Don W., A Textbook of Histology,
11th ed., Saunders (1986) [also numerous earlier editions, initially without
Fawcett].
Cormack, David H., Ham's Histology, 9th ed., Lippincott (1987)
[also earlier editions by Ham, Arthur W., and by Ham & Cormack].
Bailey, Frederick R., A Textbook of Histology (1906) [also
later editions, Bailey's Textbook of Histology, with various coauthors].