Covers the large multipolar motor neurons of the anterior horn of the spinal cord as seen with Nissl staining, which colours RNA blue-violet and shows the Nissl bodies. Lists how to recognise the slide, from the butterfly-shaped grey matter and star-shaped cell bodies to the large pale nucleus and the absence of Nissl bodies in the axon hillock. Ends with a warning to tell these cells apart from the round pseudounipolar neurons of the spinal ganglion.
Inside: 1 section · 1 min
Topic 118 of 127 in the MU Sofia syllabus for Cytology (Dental Medicine, Year 1). The free AceMed note covers it in 1 section, about 130 words (1 min of reading).
In this note
Introduction
Introduction
The large multipolar motor neurons of the anterior (ventral) horn of the spinal cord.
Stain
Nissl stain (a basic dye such as toluidine blue or cresyl violet) colours RNA blue-violet, so it shows the Nissl bodies (clumps of rough ER).
How to recognise it
Grey matter in a butterfly shape, with white matter around it.
In the anterior horn, large star-shaped cell bodies with several processes.
A large, round, pale nucleus with a dark nucleolus.
Blue-violet Nissl bodies fill the cytoplasm and the start of the dendrites, but not the axon hillock or the axon.
Many small glial nuclei around the neurons.
Don't confuse it with: the pseudounipolar neurons of the spinal ganglion, which are round and have no visible processes.
Theory: topics 64 (neurons) and 17 (ER and ribosomes).
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