Welcome to Histology at SIU

This website summarizes the basics of tissue organization in the human body, in extensively hyper-linked notes and images.  

About this resource (pdf)

This website is maintained by David G. King, currently Associate Professor Emeritus at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, based on 35 years' experience teaching introductory histology.

Dedication:  Textbooks and websites (including this one) commonly present information ex cathedra, without historical context, as if it had always existed.  But our knowledge of tissues has emerged incrementally over hundreds of years.  This website is dedicated to all the researchers, technicians, artists, and teachers who have invented protocols, observed specimens, published discoveries, and shared their understanding.  A few of their contributions are acknowledged in this website on the eponyms and historical notes page.

Using this histology resource

Throughout this website, most thumbnail images are links to larger, labelled images with additional notes.  (To browse all images, see the image index.)

Accessibility:  "Alternative text" for images (i.e., text displayed in place of images) is seldom provided.  Most images in this website are micrographs illustrating the accompanying text.  That text can be read without regard to the images, except to note that most small "thumbnail" images are themselves links to pages with enlarged images, whose accompanying text in turn describes details within those enlargments.  "Alternative text" could do little more than duplicate that accompanying text.

Questions, comments, or error notes are welcome, sent to the email address at the bottom of each page

Contents

Image Index

Histology Topics for Lincoln Scholars Program   Orientation to the tissue domain   What is histology?   What are the core concepts of histology?   What are the most common patterns of tissue organization?   Elementary histopathology.

Von Ebner's 1873 drawing of eponymous tissues in the tongue.

Introduction -- Essentials of histology   Basic tissues:  epithelium, connective tissue, muscle, nerve (more nervous tissue) Microscopy, tissue preparation Skin, inflammation, blood
CRR Cardiovascular system Respiratory system Renal system
NMB (= SSB) Nervous tissue skin  /  muscle  /  bone & cartilage eye  /  ear.
ERG Endocrine system Reproductive systems: Male / Female  Gastrointestinal system
Other tissues NOT represented in this website (partial list)
SAQ (Self Assessment Questions)   Eponyms and historical notes:  Notable people and events in the history of histology
print resources  /  access to literature  /  Image Index

A few external resources Virtual slides Histology at the University of Michigan, a large collection of specimens for examination by virtual microscopy, as well as introductory exercises.   Zoomified Virtual Histology offers many tissues for virtual microscopic examination (at Loyola University Medical Education Network LUMEN).     Histology Guide, a collection of slides for virtual microscopy, with extensive supporting materials (and associated print textbook and atlas).  About this website.   Pathology The Internet Pathology Laboratory for Medical Education (WebPath), hosted by The University of Utah Eccles Health Sciences Library, is a vast resource of materials related to pathology, including many micrographs of normal and pathological specimens.   University of Michigan, pathology specimens, a large pathology collection for examination by virtual microscopy.   Virtual Pathology at the University of Leeds, searchable collection of pathology specimens for examination by virtual microscopy.   The Pathology Guy:  Ed "the Pathguy" Friedlander offers an extensive array of pathology-related resources, including introductory histology.   Electron microscopy:  Electron Microscopic Atlas of Mammalian Tissues, online images at the University of Mainz.   Molecular Biology of the Cell, 4th ed., online textbook by Bruce Alberts, et al., © 2002. (This is "the classic in-depth text reference in cell biology," recommended as a refresher or solid introduction to topics in cell biology).

SEARCH THE SITE:	WWW histology.siu.edu