Tissues in the body system. Tissue science - histology - in the system of biomedical scientific and educational disciplines

The article covers the formation and development of histology – the science of tissues - shows the formation of ideas about tissues, and provides information on the classification of tissues. The term "tissue” was first introduced into scientific vocabulary in 1671 by the English botanist and physician N. Grew (1641 – 1712) when describing the microscopic structure of plant organs. In the 50s of the 19th century, German histologists R.A. Kölliker (1817 – 1905) and F. Leydig (1821 – 1908) laid the foundations for the current scientific classification of tissues. These authors distinguished 4 main groups of tissues: epithelium, connective tissue and blood, nervous tissue, muscle tissue. Russian scientists A.A. Zavarzin and N.G. Khlopin made a great contribution to the development of problems of classification and evolution of tissues. It should be noted that the term “tissue,” initially understood as purely morphological, also received its physiological content, that is, the concept of “tissue” became a morphofunctional concept. One of the leading paradigms of histology is the idea of tissue stability at the stages of ontogenesis of organisms. Variability of fabrics is allowed within certain limits, within the tissue group to which the fabric belongs. There is no convincing evidence of the transition of tissue from one tissue group to any other. The first departments of histology arose in European higher educational institutions in the middle of the 19th century, and in higher educational institutions in Russia in the late 60s of the 19th century. Histology as a scientific discipline has not exhausted the reserve of its capabilities, therefore the exclusion of histology from the nomenclature of scientific specialties is incorrect.