Anyone know anything about histology?

[Jikx]

Hello!

I am doing a uni project where basically I take microscopic pictures of my organ (in this case the cerebellum), when i came across this :

http://friendlygrocer.net/~jikx/H-n-E-(u).jpg

While I know about the molecular layer, granular layer, and purkinje cells.. I am honestly stumped what these structures are! Its wedged inbetween two folia (foldings in the cerebellum).

any help appreciated!

(if i can't figure out what it is, i guess i'll leave it out and pretend it never existed )

 

[Monique]

Ok, this is a very wild guess of my just based on the looks of the picture and not on anatomy or anything (disclaimer :P).. um.. but could that simply be neurons? I see the soma (head with nucleus), axon along which the signal travels and dendrites which contact other cells..

http://vv.carleton.ca/~neil/neural/neuron-a.html

 

[nautica]

Cell body of a nueron with the dendrites and axons coming off.

Nautica

 

[adrenaline]

They look like glial cells, rather than neurons...many types but scwhann, astrocytes etc. are the subtypes. If this is the brain its probably astrocytes.

 

[Monique]

I don't think it looks like an astrocyte though.. an astrocyte (as the name implies) should look like a star, stellar shaped cell bodies:
http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/medicine/anatomy/neuro/graphics/as-2.htm

 

[Monique]

This page might give you the necessary information to distinguish between the different kinds of nerve/glial cells
http://www.technion.ac.il/~mdcourse/274203/lect7.html

 

[adrenaline]

This page might give you the necessary information to distinguish between the different kinds of nerve/glial cells
http://www.technion.ac.il/~mdcourse/274203/lect7.html

They actually look like schwann cells but they are in the wrong place! I guess they could be microglial cells. There are quite a few glial cells and my memory is poor, but I can't remember if muller astrocytes might not look like these if not fixed correctly. (it's amazing how the fixation can alter the histology a lot...this is from experience since i was always lousy with the preparation and people could not recognize what I fixed! ) I hated and despised histology because of this.

 

[Jikx]

Oops! I was wondering where my thread went.. thanks everyone! And yes.. i dispise histology as well now..

 

[Moonbear]

How thick were your sections? Did the same structures appear in multiple sections before and/or after the one shown? What is the magnification of the image? I haven't really studied histology of the cerebellum, so I'm just guessing here, but depending on the level and orientation of this section, it's possible you just have some of the meninges attached in one of the cerebellar folds. Meninges are the membrane covering the brain and attach within the cerebellum. Even if you attempted to remove them before sectioning and processing, a few remnants may have remained attached in the folds...they are always tough buggers to remove completely.