Lecture 1 (Introduction) - ● Self-directed practicals on odd weeks... (your ‘week off’ from practicals) 10% ● Online post lecture quizzes (weekly) 10% ● Integrated assessment 10% ● Finals - theory (45%) and practical (25%) ● Anatomy: macroscopic structure ● Histology: microscopic structure ● Textbooks

○ Anatomy colouring book by kapit and elson ○ Grays anatomy for students by drake et al ○ Histology by ross and paulina (ebook from the library)

● Histology: the study of normal body cells & tissues and how they make up whole organs

○ Steps - ■ Specimen acquisition ■ Fixation ■ Dehydration ■ Embedding ■ Sectioning ■ Staining

● Using light microscopes and transmission electron microscopes (used to see extremely small things with huge amount of detail)

● HME - most common stain used for looking at blood cells ● Cells deal with entropy by compartmentalisation

○ Ensures right molecules get to the right place ○ Compartments remain able to function separately to contribute to the whole

system ● The crowded cytoplasm = organelles, inclusions (small, insoluble particles) and cytosol ● Cisternae - flat sheet of membrane (ex. Endoplasmic reticulum and golgi) ● Cristae - folds of membrane (ex. mitochondria) ● Chromatin: non-dividing cells, DNA + histones

○ Euchromatin - DNA wraps around histones forming nucleosomes (more active form, found in ‘busy’ cells)

○ Heterochromatin - multiple nucleosomes wrap around to form a 30nm chromatin fibre, usually in inactive cells (condensed = darker colour on electron microscope images)

● Chromosomes: only in dividing cells, rarely seen ● Microtubules - used for intracellular function, cell shape, cilia function and chromosome

arrangement, made up of tubulin protein and form hollow cylinders (always 22nm diameter and 5nm wall)

○ Can be disrupted through drugs, decreasing temperature and increasing hydrostatic pressure

● Microfilaments - made of actin in a helical array (always 6nm diameter), very flexible, used for microvilli structure and extension of cell processes

● Histology of mitochondria is very important to the process of ATP production ○ Can initiate apoptosis by releasing cytochrome c into the cell cytoplasm ○ Inner membrane = cristae

Lecture 2 (Central nervous system and neural tissue) -

● Superior sagittal sinus - drains fluid and ● Neurocranium - dura is tightly adhered ● Lots of holes at the bottom of the skull to accommodate the brain regions ● Brain = hollow, three layers of packaging, interesting blood supply and drainage,

encaged by bony layer ● Carotid canal is where the carotid artery passes through ● Sagittal brain = cut in half ● Basal view = underside of the brain ● VERY important -

● Usually more grey matter than white in the brain

● Brainstem = most complex part of the brain ● BRAINSTORM - use in prac classes, program to navigate through the brain ● Cerebellum key function is in motor coordination ● Hypothalamus: collection of grey matter involved in homeostasis ● Thalamus = gateway to the cortex (minus olfactory system)

○ Internal capsule - white matter that passes information through to the cortex from the thalamus

● Ingula - decides what’s important and what’s not

● Cells of the nervous system (CNS, PNS and ENS)

● **No meninges or blood vessels (only things missing) ● Neurons key features

○ Extensive membrane processes - axons and dendrites ○ Form a contiguous network - synapses ○ Conduct charge - membranes and ion channels

● You must always state the stain because you can only see what you stain for in neurons ● How to describe a typical neuron:

○ Name - some have particular names...

○ Microscope used ○ Stain/s ○ Cell body - size, shape, nucleus qualities, cytoplasm ○ Cell processes/membrane

■ Polarity - no. of processes (uni, bi or multipolar) ■ Axon length - long = golgi 1, short = golgi 2 ■ Dendritic tree size, shape branching and location

○ General location (usually of the cell body) ■ Central - intermediary/integrative ■ Peripheral - motor or sensory ■ Enteric

○ Particular location - of grey matter and organisation of cell body and processes ○ Other/special note ○ Function ○ Matter of interest

● Transition electron microscope (TEM) key distinguishing features for neurons ○ Large euchromatic nucleus, usually central ○ Prominent nucleolis ○ Abundant RER (Nissl substance) ○ Filaments and tubules ○ Membrane processes ○ Synapses (chemical)

● Synapse under TEM

● CNS

○ Spinal cord ○ Brain

■ Brainstem - medulla, pons, midbrain ■ Cerebellum, diencephalon, cerebral hemispheres

○ Associated structures ■ Ventricles and choroid plexus ■ Blood vessels ■ Meninges - pia, arachnoid, dura ■ Neurocranium, vertebral column

● Grey matter - for information processing ○ Neuronal cell bodies - interneurons (modulators) and projection neurons ○ Dendrites ○ Axons, proxima, distal, transit, interneuron ○ Synapses ○ Supporting cells (mainly astrocytes) ○ Capillaries

● White matter - for information transfer ○ Axons, myelinated, unmyelinated ○ Oligodendrocytes ○ Other supporting cells ○ Some capillaries

● Stain - nissl and myelin

● Stain - toluidin blue

● Stain - haematoxylin and eosin (shows cell

bodies not cell processes)

● Stain - reduced silver

● Cerebellum cortex diagram

● Neurons form 6 layers (lamina) in the neocortex parallel to the surface of the brain

● Retina - also has various layers

● CNS supporting cells

○ Astrocytes ■ Has cell processes ■ Mechanical - hold brain together ■ Maintains interstitial homeostasis ■ Act as barriers (ex. BBB - monitor the tight junctions in the capillaries) ■ Form scar tissue ■ Attach to the pia mater ■ Mainly found in grey matter (can also be found in white) ■ Main supporting cell found in brain matter

○ Oligodendrocytes

■ Found in white matter ■ Few processes ■ Involved in myelinating axons ■ Can myelinate several fibers at once

○ Microglia ■ Very small cells ■ Mobile - can move across BBB ■ Immunological (including phagocytic function)

● Ependymal cells ○ Line the ventricles ○ Simple columnar cells ○ Form tight junctions (= forming a barrier) and have no basement membrane ○ Have cilia (suggests moving stuff around - probably CSF) and microvilli (suggests

absorption) ○ Also found in spinal cord

● Choroid plexus ○ Within the brain ventricles ○ Produces CSF ○ Filters or manipulates blood to make CSF ○ Structure made up of ependymal cells,

capillaries, CSF in the ventricles and a little bit of pia mater

● Meninges ○ Composed of dura, arachnoid and pia

layers

○ Pia layer - one flat level of cells that follow the blood vessels part way into the

brain ○ Right underneath pia mater = layer of astrocytes with their ‘feet’ touching the pia

layer ● Pituitary

○ Pars nervosa - have axons and blood vessels

■ Makes up the neurohypophysis (posterior lobe)

■ Produces oxytocin and ADH (vasopressin)

○ Pars distalis ■ Makes up the adenohypophysis

(anterior lobe) - not actually from the brain but stuck onto the posterior lobe

■ Linked to hypothalamus through a vascular system

■ Controlled by nerves of hypothalamus but hormonally activated (not actually part of the nervous system...)

● Pineal gland - secretes melatonin Lecture 3 (Peripheral nervous system and epithelial tissue) -

● Classification of peripheral nerves ○ Attachment ○ Function

○ Destination

● Ganglia - collection of neuronal cell bodies and other features ● Somatic sensory neuron - pain, touch, temperature, proprioception

○ Unipolar, golgi 1 = single short process which divides and long central branch (to a peripheral transducer)

○ Cell body in dorsal root or cranial nerve ganglia ○ Cell body surrounded by satellite cells ○ PNS sensory ○ Specialised transducer ex. = pacinian corpuscle (rapidly adapting

mechanoreceptor, central axon surrounded by layers of cells and fluid)

● Somatic motor neurons - skeletal muscle

○ Multipolar ○ Cell body either in a CNN or the ventral horn of the spinal cord ○ Long axon = golgi 1 ○ Innervates skeletal muscle - ends at a neuromuscular junction (one motor neuron

supplies 3 to 100’s of skeletal muscle cells = motor unit) ○ Also called a lower or alpha motor neuron

● Pre and postganglionic autonomic neuron - smooth and cardiac muscles, glands

○ Two neurons (pre and post) ○ Sympathetic and parasympathetic ○ Preganglionic - multipolar, golgi 1, cell body in CNS (still referred to part of PNS) ○ Postganglionic - multipolar, golgi 1, cell body in a ganglia

● Visceral sensory - viscera ○ Similar to somatic sensory neurons ○ Some initially pass through sympathetics then pass to dorsal root