Introductory Histology Tutorial IEpithelial Tissues

Human Anatomy & Physiology I

Assembled by Stephen Shoemake

{Click mouse to advance}

NAVIGATION

= returns you to the previous slide.

= returns you to the Index, regardless of

which slide you are on currently.

Click on any empty space to advance to the next slide.

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.

INSTRUCTIONS

Index: Epithelial tissues

Go directly to tissues

Epithelial types

Simple squamous epithelium

Simple Cuboidal epithelium

Simple Columnar epithelium

Quick Quiz

Stratified squamous epithelium

Stratified cuboidal epithelium

Pseudostratified columnar epithelium

The red arrows above point at a single layer of flattened cells

that line a blood vessel. (The reddish stuff at the bottom of

the screen is blood.) Note the flattened nuclei (dark ovals)

which clue you in on the shape of the cells themselves.

What type of

epithelium is shown?

This is a simple squamous epithelium.

There is another one at the orange arrow.

Answer

What type of tissue is indicated by the blue arrow?

This is also a simple squamous epithelium. This

one is the epithelium that lines the renal

corpuscles in the kidney.

Answer

FYI: This is a surface view of a simple

squamous epithelium.

Here is an epithelium lining a duct.

What type of epithelium is it?

This is a simple cuboidal epithelium. The cells

are about as tall as they are wide.

Answer

What type of tissue is indicated by the red arrows?

This is a simple columnar epithelium.

These light purple cells are clearly taller

than they are wide. The dark purple ovals

are their nuclei.

Answer

The tissue indicated at “a” would be

classified as…?

a

Answer

This is a stratified squamous epithelium.

This slide is a section of the tissue that lines

your inner cheek.

This is a slide of human skin. How would

you classify the layer indicated by “a”?

a

This is also stratified squamous epithelium. If

you look closely you will see multiple layers of

flattened cells.

a

Answer

The main difference between skin and the cells

that line your cheek is that in skin, the outer layer

of cells has become filled with a proteinacous

substance called keratin. (become keratinized)

More info.

The light purple layer of the epidermis looks very

much like those cheek cells.

More info.

The epithelial layer which lines the cavity (white

space) seen here would be classified as…?

…stratified cuboidal epithelium. Note that most

of this cavity is lined by two layers of cells which

are “block-like” in shape.

The epithelium at the surface (top) here would be

classified as…

…pseudostratified columnar epithelium.

Although the cells appear to be in several layers,

they are actually all in contact with the basement

membrane.

Quick Quiz

For each of the following slides, try to

guess which type of epithelium you are

looking at. Before you check the answer,

be able to justify to yourself why you

think it is that type.

The outlined structure is a “tube” lined by

Simple Cuboidal epithelium . There are also

other similar tubes surrounding this one.

This is Simple Columnar epithelium

The layer indicated is...

Stratified squamous epithelium.

The epithelium which lines this “tube” would be

classified as...

…stratified cuboidal epithelium. Notice that

there are two layers of cells that are about as wide

as they are tall.

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”.