Cytology and general histology

Teacher(s)

Pierreux Christophe;

Language

French

Main themes

The biological and medical sciences are based on three fundamental disciplines: - BIOCHEMISTRY, which studies the molecules composing the organism and the chemical reactions happening within it, - MORPHOLOGY, which studies the structures formed by assembling molecules, - PHYSIOLOGY, which studies the function of diverse structures composing the organism. Cytology is the study of the cellular components. The objectives of this part of the course are to enable students to establish links between the morphology and the main cellular functions, between the cellular ultrastructure and the cellular aspect at light microscopy. Just like cytology and anatomy, histology is a branch of morphology, and is itself divided into general and special histology. General histology is the study of tissues, the association of cells of the same type, sometimes with extracellular components, which form the elemental organ components. Special histology, also called microscopic anatomy, is studied later. It studies the architecture of organs composed of several tissues.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	1. To acquire the scientific and medical vocabulary used in morphological sciences and know the definition of the words used. 2. To know the definition of the tissues composing the human body and their main localisation. 3. To know the cytological, histological and sometimes macroscopical characteristics of the tissues, in other words, their identification criteria. 4. To know the elements of histophysiology: the role and function of tissues. 5. To be capable of analysing a morphological document (light or electronic micrography, macroscopic photography, histological preparation). This requires the capacity to examine the document as a whole, spotting the different constituents of the tissues, giving their description outlining shape, dimensions, their tinctorial affinities, their association..., picking out the essential elements from the accessory ones. 6. To summarise data obtained through observation and to elaborate one or several diagnostic hypotheses.

Bibliography

Atlas d’histologie fonctionnelle de Wheater (de boeck)
Exercices de diagnostic histologique (de boeck)

Teaching materials

• Diapositives du cours disponibles sur Moodle (https://moodleucl.uclouvain.be/)
• Atlas d’histologie fonctionnelle de Wheater (de boeck)
• Exercices de diagnostic histologique (de boeck)
• Microscopie virtuelle et visite de coupes histologiques scannées accessibles via Moodle (outil Cytomine)
• Parcours pédagogiques d’auto-évaluation disponibles sur Moodle

Faculty or entity

FASB