On the welcome page of the dictionary, three major sections are shown: Normal tissues, Cancer and Cell structure. Below the image of each section are links to introductory texts for i) normal tissue histology, ii) hallmarks of cancer, and iii) cell structure overview. For the cancer-section there is also a link to current cancer statistics (incidence, survival, etc) for Sweden and the rest of the world. Within each section there are direct links to histology descriptions of different tissue types and tumor forms as well as descriptions of cell structures.
For the 'Tissue & cell types' and 'Tumor' sections, tissue-slides stained with hematoxylin and eosin (HE) are shown at three different levels of magnification. On the top level, an overview of the whole tissue-sample is shown with boxes in black indicating where zoomed-in representative parts of the tissue are available for viewing. Clicking on these boxes will zoom in on that part to show tissue structures, cells and features in greater detail. Throughout these sections, arrows indicate relevant tissue structures, cell-types and other features.
For the 'Cell structure' section, immunofluorescent images of formaldehyde-fixed cell lines are shown. The various cell structures that are demonstrated are always shown in the green channel using an antibody found in the Human Protein Atlas. The antibody name is linked to the subcellular location summary page of the target gene. The other channels: nucleus, microtubules and endoplasmic reticulum, are always shown in the blue, red and yellow channels, respectively. The channels can be toggled on and off by clicking on the respective coloured button above the image. When applicable, the immunofluorescent images are complemented by immunohistochemically stained cells where the location of the particular cell structure is shown in brown.
A common feature for all sections is that a general descriptive text about the tissue, tumor-type or cell structure is provided when browsing a particular topic.
Staining of mitochondria in human cell line U-251 MG (HPA003037)
Scale bar represents 10?m
Mitochondria
The mitochondria are responsible for the cellular energy production, a process that is generally known as the respiratory chain, in which oxidative phosphorylation of nutrition molecules lead to the generation of ATP. Unlike the other organelles, the mitochondria contain their own DNA, which codes for some of their proteins, but the mitochondria is also dependent on proteins translated from nuclear genes and imported into the organelle. The mitochondria has not only one, but two membranes of which the inner membrane plus the matrix are the major working parts. The inner membrane area is increased by a series of foldings of the membrane, thus optimizing the ATP production.
Immunofluorescent staining
Mitochondrial stainings are most often easy to recognize as they have a long, thread like pattern. They are spread throughout the cell, starting centrally, close to the nucleus and stretch all the way out to the edges of the cell. Depending on the cell, the mitochondria can also be stained as shorter threads, separate from the others, and need not be continuous.
