Histology Services

What is Histology? Histology is the study of the microscopic structure of plant and animal tissue. Histologists study tissue organization at all levels, from the whole organ to the molecular components of cells. Histological techniques include tissue fixation, processing, sectioning, staining, immunohistochemistry, and in situ hybridization. All histological methods and procedures were devised to best preserve the cellular detail of a tissue as close to life as possible.

The Elizabeth Fekete Histology Laboratory provides a centralized service for the preparation of tissues for light and fluorescence microscopy. Routine and specialized histological methods are available to The Jackson Laboratory community on a fee-for-service basis. Histologists are available to assist researchers with special procedures and project design.

Tissue is typically processed for histological study in the following steps:

• Tissue samples are frozen or embedded in a medium such as paraffin or plastic.
• The samples are sectioned into slices (usually several cells thick, or 4 microns), using a microtome.
• The sections are affixed to slides.
• The slides are deparaffinized or treated and stained to achieve the desired results.

Histological Procedures

• Tissue Handling and Trimming
• Fixatives
• Processing
• Embedding
• Sectioning
• Staining
• Immunohistochemistry