Histochemistry

The students should, at the end of the course, be able to: 1. describe the relationship between the morphology and the chemistry of a cell; 2. explain the methods, principles and techniques used in tissue culture; 3. demonstrate important enzymes presence in the cells and tissues; 4. discuss the activities of enzymes and presence of macromolecules and metabolites in normal cells and tissues; 5. describe the application and validity of histochemical and cytochemical techniques in basic, applied and clinical research; 6. demonstrate the usefulness of histological techniques in the field of cellular biology; 7. demonstrate various types of staining techniques used for culture tissue; and 8. explain the various chemical composition of the tissue using special dye.

Principles and techniques of histochemistry, commonly used histochemical techniques and their applications in diagnosis and research, tissue components covered will include nucleic acids, mucins and other carbohydrates, pigments and biogenic amines, lipids, proteins and enzymes the nature of amyloid, the occurrence of amyloid and its demonstration in tissue sections, immunocytochemical techniques, tissue preparation, physical and chemical effects of fixation, limitations of chemical fixation and alternatives to chemical fixation, cryotechniques in histochemistry, embedding techniques, special treatment of mineralised tissue, histological staining structure of dyes, binding of dyes to tissues, mechanisms of selective staining, effects of non-staining components of dye solutions on staining, metachromasia, metallic impregnation techniques, cytological techniques, advantages of exfoliative cytology, methods of cell collection and smear preparation, morphology of cells found in normal smears with emphasis on gynaecological and sputum specimens, changes in smears with age and menstrual cycle.