Stomach - 40X (a)
 
This image shows the inner part of the wall of the stomach. Three of the layers of the stomach wall are visible and each is identified by an arrow bar. From bottom to top they are: mucosa, submucosa, and muscularis.

Lots of times there are things on slides that look like they should be important landmarks or structures but are not. The arrow on the left side of the image points to a good example of an artifact--something that is artificial. In this case is it a long, thin fold that occurred during processing.

Stomach - 40X (b)
 
This image shows the outer part of the stomach wall and includes parts of all four layers. The arrow bar indicates the full thickness of the muscularis. The muscularis is covered on the outside by a thin membrane called the serosa (ser). Below the muscularis in the image you can see part of the submucosa (sm). The mucosa is visible in the lower right corner.



Stomach - 100X
 
The epithelium lining the stomach (the surface of the stomach mucosa) is simple columnar (arrow). The surface of the mucosa is not smooth--there are indentations called gastric pits. You can see pits on either side of the arrow.







Stomach - 400X
 
In this image, the arrow bar indicates the thickness of the simple columnar epithelium. It gets thinner in the gastric pits (*).











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