Scalp, l.s. - 40X


Most of the body is covered with some type of hair. The image you see here is a section of skin from the scalp that includes not only the basic layers of skin (epidermis, dermis) but also hair follicles and their associated structures.

The arrow is pointing to a part of the hair root. The asterisk (*) shows the duct of the sebaceous gland (seb) emptying into the hair follicle.

Hairs grow out of the skin at an angle, and they don't all come out at the same angle. So when you look at an image like this, you will see the tops of some follicles, the middle of others, and the bottoms of yet others. Rarely will you get to see a section of an entire hair follicle on a real slide. You have to learn to put the pieces together in your head to match the diagrams of hair follicles in your textbook.


Scalp, l.s. - 100X
 
Here is the sebaceous gland from the image above shown at a higher magnification. You can see two lobes of the gland, the smaller one above the one labeled "seb". The small dark dots are the nuclei of the sebaceous gland cells. The cells in the gland have a light color because they are filled with sebum, which consists mainly of lipids. The hair follicle is to the left of the gland.


 Scalp, l.s. - 40X
 
This image shows the bottoms of three hair follicles. Notice that they are mostly surrounded by adipose tissue. This part of the follicles is located in the hypodermis.









 Scalp, l.s. - 100X
 
This is an enlargement of the middle follicle from the image above. The section was made in about the center of the follicle, because se can see the indentation at the bottom of the follicle where the dermal papilla (p) projects into the hair. The area inside the box is enlarged below.





return to organ slide index