Thank you for this! I find your voice really relaxing and love to learn about this stuff even as a non-bio/anatomist person. I just enjoy the soothing background content while I work! I find it keeps me super on task. Thank you so so much for these!
Thanks! Glad you liked it :). There's certainly much more to cover, I've got some slides being scanned which might give the opportunity to talk about mammalian neuroanatomy a bit more.
It's acutally very difficult to tell the anatomic regions apart based on histology. Thoracic sections have a "lateral horn" to the grey matter with parasympathetic neurons but this can be very difficult to spot. In thoracic and lumbar regions that contain motor neurons for the limbs, the grey matter portion is much larger relative to the white matter. I've read some websites that say the shape of the grey matter can help - but I'm not convinced that is particularly reliable. If I ever sample a spinal cord, I make sure to label it before it goes in formalin so because once it's cut into sections and on a slide you won't be able to tell which region the section is from!
@@DownTheScopeMicroscopy lateral horn has sympathetic , and cervical and lumbar has motor neurons for limbs ,,,, u said it wrong over here ,,,,, said correct in the videoo,,,,, great video by the way❤❤
Thank you for the video, I had a question regarding the stain. Does it have a preference for RNA over DNA? You mentioned that it stains both but when looking at the cell’s nucleus, it seems to be only slightly stained compared to the nucleolus or the citoplasm even.
Thanks for watching! Nissl stain doesn't have a preference for RNA over DNA. Your assessment of the staining pattern is spot on and I would attribute it to the density of nucleic acids in each of those parts. The nucleolus is very densely stained as there are high concentrations of both DNA and ribosomal RNA. The DNA in the rest of the nucleus is not as condensed since the cell is actively transcribing and producing RNA for protein production. You can see similar staining patterns in the nuclei (dense nucleolus with lighter staining, "vesicular" nucleus) of other metabolically active cells for example, the oocytes in the Amphioxus ovary. The dense staining in the cytoplasm is testament to the high concentrations of RNA. If you imagine that a single gene in the nucleus is being transcribed hundreds (maybe thousands) of times, all of that RNA will concentrate in the cytoplasm around the endoplasmic reticulum.
@@DownTheScopeMicroscopy It completely escaped my mind to take into account the density of the stained molecules rather than their afinity for the dye! Thank you very much for the response
Thank you for this! I find your voice really relaxing and love to learn about this stuff even as a non-bio/anatomist person. I just enjoy the soothing background content while I work! I find it keeps me super on task. Thank you so so much for these!
Thank you for the feedback :), I'm hoping to keep expanding the selection of videos. I've just got some new slides so there's more to come!
Loved this. As an anatomist I would have probably done some things differently, but that was really good.
Thanks! Glad you liked it :). There's certainly much more to cover, I've got some slides being scanned which might give the opportunity to talk about mammalian neuroanatomy a bit more.
Thank you for this
..Please can you elaborate more on the difference on both the cervical,thoracic,lumbar and sacral slides
It's acutally very difficult to tell the anatomic regions apart based on histology. Thoracic sections have a "lateral horn" to the grey matter with parasympathetic neurons but this can be very difficult to spot. In thoracic and lumbar regions that contain motor neurons for the limbs, the grey matter portion is much larger relative to the white matter. I've read some websites that say the shape of the grey matter can help - but I'm not convinced that is particularly reliable. If I ever sample a spinal cord, I make sure to label it before it goes in formalin so because once it's cut into sections and on a slide you won't be able to tell which region the section is from!
@@DownTheScopeMicroscopy lateral horn has sympathetic , and cervical and lumbar has motor neurons for limbs ,,,, u said it wrong over here ,,,,, said correct in the videoo,,,,, great video by the way❤❤
Thank you for the video, I had a question regarding the stain. Does it have a preference for RNA over DNA? You mentioned that it stains both but when looking at the cell’s nucleus, it seems to be only slightly stained compared to the nucleolus or the citoplasm even.
Thanks for watching! Nissl stain doesn't have a preference for RNA over DNA. Your assessment of the staining pattern is spot on and I would attribute it to the density of nucleic acids in each of those parts. The nucleolus is very densely stained as there are high concentrations of both DNA and ribosomal RNA. The DNA in the rest of the nucleus is not as condensed since the cell is actively transcribing and producing RNA for protein production. You can see similar staining patterns in the nuclei (dense nucleolus with lighter staining, "vesicular" nucleus) of other metabolically active cells for example, the oocytes in the Amphioxus ovary. The dense staining in the cytoplasm is testament to the high concentrations of RNA. If you imagine that a single gene in the nucleus is being transcribed hundreds (maybe thousands) of times, all of that RNA will concentrate in the cytoplasm around the endoplasmic reticulum.
@@DownTheScopeMicroscopy It completely escaped my mind to take into account the density of the stained molecules rather than their afinity for the dye! Thank you very much for the response