Spinal cord (20x objective lens)

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This medium magnification view shows the gray matter (upper left) and white matter (lower right) of the spinal cord. The gray matter is more darkly stained and contains the soma (cell bodies) of neurons. The large neuron (stained blue) in the upper right quadrant of the image, has a large nucleus with a prominent red-stained nucleolus. Note the blue-stained dendritic processes extending from the nerve cell body. The long, thin structure surrounded by a clear space, above and to the left of the neuron, is a capillary. The nuclei of glia cells can be seen as small dark structures located throughout the gray matter.

 

The white matter consists of nerve fibers and glia cells. The unstained, circular spaces in the white matter mark the location of myelin sheaths and the dark structures in the center of the space are nerve fibers. Note that the nerve fibers seen in cross section are running parallel to the long axis of the cord. Those seen in longitudinal section are running perpendicular to the long axis of the cord. Several bundles of longitudinally sectioned nerve fibers can be seen entering the white matter from the gray matter on their way to the ventral root nerve.

 

Stain = AZAN.

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