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Peripheral Nervous System - Histology (view source)
Revision as of 17:39, 23 October 2011
, 17:39, 23 October 2011→Histology of Myelinated Nerve with lipid stain
====Histology of Myelinated Nerve with lipid stain====
===Myelinated Nerve (with lipid stain)===
[[Image:WIKIVETmyeinatednerveinsmallfibrelipdstained.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Myelinated Nerve in Small Fibre, Lipid Stained - Copyright John Bredl]]
[[Image:WIKIVETmyeinatednerveinsmallfibrelipdstained.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Myelinated Nerve in Small Fibre, Lipid Stained - Copyright John Bredl]]
A lipid stain highlights aspects within the histology that contain lipid. In this case the main lipid bearing tissue within a nerve is the fat contained within the myelin sheath, or Schwann cells. In comparison with the image above, this image is taken at a higher magnification and shows the bundles of nerve fibres in more detail.
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The epineurium is less visible in this image due to the higher magnification but is effectively around the upper-right of the image. Several blood vessels can be seen within the connective tissue around the bundles (seen as small holes within the connective tissue). As was discussed in the image above, the epineurium is often surrounded by adipose tissue. Due to the type of stain used for this image, several adipocytes can be seen to the right of the image. Each nerve bundle is surrounded by the perineurium and this can be clearly seen surrounding each.
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Given the lipid stain, it is possible to distinguish the myelinated nerves from the unmyelinated nerves within each bundle. Therefore a large proportion of the nerves are myelinated within each bundle. These myleinated nerves appear at this magnification with a charactristic ''donut'' shape which represents the axon in the centre (which contains no lipid) and the surrounding Scwann cell (containing lipid).
The myelin stained here gives the nerve it's shape and support.
The myelin stained here gives the nerve it's shape and support.
The perineurium and endoneurium provide a constant environment for the nerve fibres.
The perineurium and endoneurium provide a constant environment for the nerve fibres.
====Histology of Myelinated Nerve (longitudinal section)====
====Histology of Myelinated Nerve (longitudinal section)====