Thyroid Gland - 40X
 
This image shows part of the thyroid (thy) and parathyroid (par) glands. The thyroid gland is easy to identify because its tissue is arranged in follicles. Each follicle looks like a pink spot surrounded by a purple line. If you can recognize the thryoid, then you can identify the parathyroid based on its location right next to the thyroid.



Thyroid Gland - 400X

 
A thyroid follicle (arrow bar) is a spherical sacs of cells (arrow) that surrounds a mass of protein called thyroglobulin (tg). The follicle cells are usually cuboidal in shape, but they may look very flat if the gland is not active.







Parathyroid Gland - 400X
 
The functional cells of the parathyroid gland are called chief cells. In the image, the purple spots are the nuclei of chief cells. Oxyphil cells, if they are present--which they are not in this image--can be identified because they are larger and have more cytoplasm than the chief cells.





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