The surface epithelia

Every histology course starts here and every practical comes back to it. The six are not hard, but they are easy to muddle under pressure, because the differences are small and the words are long.

One line each is all you need: the feature that settles it, where it is found, and the wrong answer waiting for you.

Read this before you use these pictures

These are labelled drawings, not slides. They teach the pattern; they do not replace a photographed field, and no examiner will hand you anything this tidy. Each was shown with no caption to two independent reviewers, and only those both of them named correctly appear here — 39 of 61 passed that test.

Labelled illustration of Simple squamous epithelium — Learn the pattern here, then find it in the real field — the slide will never look this tidy.

Labelled illustration of Simple columnar epithelium — Learn the pattern here, then find it in the real field — the slide will never look this tidy.

Labelled illustration of Ciliated columnar epithelium with goblet cells — Learn the pattern here, then find it in the real field — the slide will never look this tidy.

Labelled illustration of Pseudostratified columnar epithelium — Learn the pattern here, then find it in the real field — the slide will never look this tidy.

Labelled illustration of Transitional epithelium — Learn the pattern here, then find it in the real field — the slide will never look this tidy.

1 of the six is not shown. Its illustration did not pass the accuracy screen, and a wrong picture is worse than none.

The one-question ladder

1. How many layers? If one, it is simple. If many, it is stratified or transitional.
2. Do all the cells touch the base? If nuclei sit at several levels but every cell reaches down, it is pseudostratified.
3. Taller than wide? Columnar. As tall as wide? Cuboidal. Flatter than wide? Squamous.
4. Anything on the free surface? Cilia, a brush border, goblet cells, or dome-shaped umbrella cells.

← Back to the histology bench

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The surface epithelia

Every histology course starts here and every practical comes back to it. The six are not hard, but they are easy to muddle under pressure, because the differences are small and the words are long.

One line each is all you need: the feature that settles it, where it is found, and the wrong answer waiting for you.

Read this before you use these pictures

The one-question ladder

1. How many layers? If one, it is simple. If many, it is stratified or transitional.

2. Do all the cells touch the base? If nuclei sit at several levels but every cell reaches down, it is pseudostratified.

3. Taller than wide? Columnar. As tall as wide? Cuboidal. Flatter than wide? Squamous.

4. Anything on the free surface? Cilia, a brush border, goblet cells, or dome-shaped umbrella cells.