Transitional Index

Epithelium Lab slide

Main Lab Index

Slide Identification	Box	Images			Reference
Endothelium or Mesothelium Carolina H 310 Carolina H 140 Ward's M3304 Ward's 93 W 3015	1				di Fiore figure 2-1
		400X	400X from a different focal plane	400X with labels

These slides have a small piece of mesentery mounted on them. Recall that a mesentery is a three layered structure made up of two layers of mesothelium (simple squamous epithelium) with an intervening layer of connective tissue (including blood vessels). When examining the tissue you will see a layer of nuclei along with a well defined set of cell boundaries. These cells are arranged like cobblestones, closely touching all of their neighbors (see first image above). As you focus up and down you should be able to see a second set of nuclei and cell boundaries, corresponding to the second layer of the mesentery (see second image above).

Some of the slides have small blood vessels between the epithelial layers. The vessels themselves are lined with a simple squamous epithelium called an endothelium, but the three dimensional shape of the cells differs from that of the mesothelium.

Click on the any of the small images above to see a higher resolution image.