Introduction

Four different types of tissue make up all the organs and tissues in the body. These are:

  1. Epithelia - covering cells
  2. Connective tissue - 'space filling' tissue
  3. Muscle - either striated or smooth
  4. Nerves

Before you start looking at histology sections in the other topics, if you can learn to recognise different types of epithelia, connective tissue, muscle and nerves, then it will be much easier for you to understand how these components combine to make up the tissue that you are looking at, and contribute to the functions of these tissues.

Blood is also covered in this section. This is because blood vessels are found in the connective tissue, and some white blood cells leave the blood vessels and make up part of the connective tissues.