Histology Flashcards
What do osteoblasts look like?
Ovoidal= active
Flattened= inactive
Have a peripherally/centrally located round nucleus and are found lining calcified bone
What do osteoclasts look like?
Multinucleated with haphazardly located nuclei
What is a satellite cell?
Precursor to skeletal muscle cell
What cells do growth plates contain?
Longitudinally-orientated chondrocytes
When describing a histopathological lesion, what 7 things do you include?
Organ
Location
Distribution (multifocal, diffuse, focal etc)
Inflammatory cells (acute= neutrophils, RBCs) (subacute= lymphocytes and plasma cells, maybe eosinophils) (chronic= macrophages, giant cells, fibroblasts)
Numbers (mild, moderate, severe, lesser number of…)
Damage (often some necrosis, protein-rich debris, protein is always pink-eosinophilic)
Agents (bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes)
What kind of nuclei do fibroblasts have?
Flattened
Giant cells have which kind of nuclei?
Multi nucleated
How would oedema appear?
Light pink as it is slightly eosinophilic
What do nerve cells look like?
Nucleolus within nucleus
Very pink cytoplasm as they are constantly synthesising protein to maintain their processes and connections
How do cancer cells appear?
Very bizarre nuclei! The more bizarre the nuclei, the more aggressive the cancer.
Very large nuclei, nuclear membrane may be wrinkled, nuclei tend to have blocks of clumpy heterochromatin (dark purple)
What is the difference between heterochromatin and euchromatin?
Light-staining areas of the nucleus are called “euchromatin”. Abundant euchromatin denotes an active cell.
Dark-staining areas of the nucleus are called “heterochromatin”. There is always a rim of heterochromatin under the real nuclear membrane. Abundant heterochromatin denotes an inactive cell.
What do mitotic figures look like?
Instead of a nucleus, the chromosomes are visible as tangled, dark-staining threads. No nuclear membrane.
What do paneth cells do?
SI: Produce eosinophilic granules with anti-microbial compounds- important in immunity and host-defence
How do you identify a necrotic cell?
Hyper-eosinophilic, smaller
