Histology Across the Human Lifespan: A Photographic Atlas Project

This project continues the development of an educational resource for students of higher education pursuing histology coursework in basic medical science programs. The pivotal design component for “Histology Across the Human Lifespan,” is the presentation of multiple samples of a single tissue type to novice learners. Students examine microscopic samples of the same tissue type from individuals in ten different age categories that include a pediatric exemplar, an adolescent exemplar, plus adult and geriatric samples. Medical science programs typically do not include age progression observations for students in traditional histology courses. However, comparisons made between tissue samples of individuals of different ages can reinforce similarities and highlight differences between tissues and organs. In addition, this atlas project will provide comparisons of adult tissue exemplars from all major organs between individuals with a normal body mass index (BMI) and those with an abnormally high BMI. Individuals with a BMI >40 kg/m2 are considered morbidly obese, and are at risk for serious health complications. Samples that have been analyzed demonstrate that with aging there is a diminished number of parenchymal cells and an increase in stromal cells and collagen deposition. A similar but more dramatic trend in diminished numbers was seen in males and females that were categorized as morbidly obese, even in the youngest age categories for both endocrine glands and heart tissue. Current work is focused on quantifying cell changes in organs of the cardiopulmonary systems. Changes in cell size and numbers have important implications for heart and lung function. Aging individuals of both genders, with normal and abnormal body mass indexes, have shown initial increases in cell numbers as organ size increases until puberty. However, morbidly obese, prepubertal individuals showed diminished cell numbers earlier than the non‐obese exemplars. This trend continues throughout their lifespan at an accelerated rate compared to non‐obese individuals. A systematic histological investigation of remaining organ systems will be completed over the next three years. Support or Funding Information Northeast Ohio Medical University, Rootstown, Ohio; Bio‐Med Science Academy, Rootstown, Ohio This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .