Specimen Nr. 02A

Specimen:

Spinal cord (Human being)

Staining:

Luxolechtblau-PAS-Hemalaun

Magnification:

10x

Important structures :

1.	Dura mater (pachymeninx) and arachnoid mater
2.	Arachnoid mater (detached)
3.	Roots of a spinal nerve in subarachnoid space
4.	Pia mater (partially detached)
5.	Anterior spinal artery
6.	Anterior horn (grey matter)
7.	Posterior horn (grey matter)
8.	White matter

Das Präparat zeigt einen Querschnitt aus dem oberen Thorakalmark, umgeben von den Rückenmarkshäuten. Die Dura Mater ist auf der linken Seite aufgerissen. Die Arachnoidea hat sich größtenteils von der Dura mater gelöst. Ebenso ist die Pia Mater auf der linken Seite durch einen artifiziellen Schrumpfspalt vom darunterliegenden zentralnervösen Gewebe getrennt. Im Subarachnoidalraum liegen die zu Faszikeln zusammengefaßten Axone der Hinter- und Vorderwurzeln. Diese verlaufen abwärts und sind deshalb quer getroffen.

Legende:

	Dura mater (pachymeninx) and arachnoid mater
	Arachnoid mater (detached)
	Roots of a spinal nerve in subarachnoid space
	Pia mater (partially detached)
	Anterior spinal artery
	Anterior horn (grey matter)
	Posterior horn (grey matter)
	White matter

Myelin-sheath stains

Weigert iron-hematoxylin stain

Structures	Colour
Nuclei	black to blue-black
Cytoplasm	-
Connective-tissue fibres - Collagen - Reticular - Elastic	- - black to blue-black
Myocytes	black to blue-black
Erythrocytes	black to blue-black

Dyes:

Iron-hematoxylin:	is a hematoxylin and stains far more intensively than hemalaun. To be able to stain myelin sheaths with Weigert dye, the lipids in the myelin must be preserved while preparing the specimen. The myelin sheaths turn black to blue-black.
Luxol fast blue:	Only the neurokeratin remains in normal paraffin fixation of myelin sheaths. Luxol fast blue has a specific affinity to this lipoprotein and stains the myelin sheaths bright blue.
Osmium tetroxide	The specimens must be prepared as frozen sections. Osmium tetroxide is deposited on the double bonds of unsaturated fatty acids and produces reaction products which make even the thinnest myelin sheaths visible through black stain.

HistoNet2000 - Help

1. Organization of the screen surface

Right side: histologic specimen
Left side: information about the specimen (above) and general program functions (below)

2.Histologic specimen

Pull the mouse across the histologic specimen for training purposes. A small square with exclamation marks (dynamic labels) will appear where there is an important structure. You should then decide what structure this could be. To check your result, simply click the appropriate square, and the correct label will appear. The option “marked” allows you to see all labels for all structures simultaneously. These can be removed by clicking “unmarked”. This reactivates the dynamic labels.

3. Complementary information

Info: general information about the specimen, as well as a list of the dynamic labels
Drawing: schematic drawing of the specimen
Staining: information about the staining method for this specimen
Knowledge: short texts with basic histologic information, presently deactivated

4. General Program Functions

Home: returns you to the “start” page
Tutor: how to contact the HistoNet Team
Help: Instructions for Use appear
Exit: closes down the HistoNet program
Boxes: goes back to the other specimen of a topic
VM: provides virtual microscopy

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