Principles of Microscopy & Histology

2885 Words12 Pages
Principles of Microscopy and Histology 1. Overview of the microscope and how it functions * Word count: 216 a. Bright field microscopy utilizes an illumination technique where light is transmitted through the specimen (Pattabhi & Gautham 2002, pp. 82). The image is formed by the contrast of the interaction between the differential absorption and diffraction of the light by the specimen (Estridge & Reynolds, p. 147; Goldstein 1999, p. 71). Specialized staining methods have been developed to allow the observation of transparent biological samples (Hodges 2003, p. 504) b. The standard procedure in preparing a tissue section is as follows: (Chandler & Roberson 2009, p. 29 – 47; University of Utah n.d.): * Fixation – chemicals are employed to kill and preserve the tissue; * Dehydration – sample is dehydrated using alcohol at different concentrations; * Clearing – alcohol is removed using a clearing agent miscible with embedding medium, such as xylene; * Embedding – the tissue is infiltrated using a medium like paraffin and allowed to solidify; * Sectioning – the sample is cut in sections using a microtome. * Mounting – sections are mounted onto microscope slides; * Staining – residual solvent is removed and dyes are applied to the sample in solutions buffered at a specific pH. c. Eosin and Haematoxylin bind to tissues by charge interaction. Eosin is an acidic dye with affinity for positively charged proteins like most cytoplasmic organelles. It imparts a red or pink colour to acidophilic structures. Haematoxylin is a basic dye with an affinity to negatively charged proteins, imparting a blue-purple colour to basophilic structures like nuclei and endoplasmic reticulum, as they contain nucleic acids and negatively charged phosphate groups (Chandler & Roberson 2009, p. 50; Young et al. 2006, p. 428).

More about Principles of Microscopy & Histology

Open Document