Knowing more about tissues: dissection of animal tissue
Aim
The aim of this dissection is for you to revise the theory behind tissues
and apply your knowledge to actual tissues.
Instructions
You will be working in groups. Instructions for this activity will be
written in italics.
Materials
1 piece filter paper
scissors
forceps
threader
pointer
scalpel
blade
dissecting tray
chicken wing
cloths
Method
1. Skin
Before you begin, look at the external appearance of the chicken
wing.
Weigh the entire wing and record its mass in the table on the last
page.
Insert the scalpel blade onto the handle.
Lie the wing upside down on the dissecting board.
Cut with scissors from the severed end towards the wingtip
along the midline of the wing.
Remove as much of the skin as you can by freeing it from the
underlying tissue with a blunt instrument or pulling with your fingers.
Carefully observe the tissue that you are breaking.
1. Is skin a tissue or an organ?
2. Why is there a 'web' of skin between the joints?
3. What are the 'bumps' on the skin?
4. How easily does the skin come off between the joints?
5. Where the skin is most firmly attached?
6. Record the mass of the skin in a table as shown on the last page.
2. Connective tissue
The skin is held to the underlying pink tissue by a type of connective
tissue.
1. Name this particular type of connective tissue.
2. Give two adjectives that accurately describe it.
3. Fatty tissue
Look at the underside of the skin you have removed. You should
see clumps of yellow material. This is fat, or adipose tissue. It is also
a type of connective tissue.
Take a small amount of this fatty tissue and squash it gently in a
small beaker with some ether.
Pour some of this solution onto a piece of filter paper.
Dry the filter paper by waving it in the air.
This oily stain is known as a translucent stain.
From now on collect all the fatty material you find — you will
need it later (place in a separate beaker).
1. What do you think the function of connective tissue is here?
2. What do you notice? There is an oily stain on the paper after the
ether has evaporated.
4. Muscle
Muscle is the pinky-orange tissue you can see under the skin. The
muscles were most likely severed when the chicken was dismembered
in the butchery. Muscles are all arranged in 'antagonistic pairs' where
the action one muscle does the opposite to its partner.
Hold the wing in your left hand.
Grip the end of one of the muscles with forceps. Pull it.
Describe what happens and name the type of action it caused.
Let go and pull various other muscles.
Can you get one to cause the opposite movement?
Carefully dissect out a single muscle in FULL. Remove it from the
wing completely.
1. What type of tissue lies between the muscles?
2. Draw the wing muscle.
3. You need to follow the convention of drawing diagrams by:
a. providing a heading or title
b. adding labels (tendon, muscle, epimysium, fat tissue)
c. labelling on the right hand side of the diagram
d. providing a scale bar
5. Blood vessels
The smallest vessels you will be able to see are
small arteries (arterioles) and small veins (venules). Capillaries are
the very smallest blood vessels — so narrow in fact that erythrocytes
can only fit through in single file. It is ONLY between these vessels
and the surrounding tissues where diffusion of substances occurs.
Capillaries will not be visible to the naked eye.
As you work, look out for blood vessels.
The darker vessels are venules; the redder ones are arterioles.
In the cut end of thicker vessels you may be able to see
the lumen and vessel wall.
If you find one, work the blunt end of the threader into it and
down the vessel and see where it leads.
1. Name two substances that will diffuse into the tissues and out
of the tissues in this wing.
6. Nerves
Nerves are bundles of neurons enclosed in a membrane rather like a
piece of electrical flex. They tend to be deep in the tissues for
protection.
Keep a look out for nerves.
Nerves are hard to see but when soaked in ethanol they become
white (If possible check with your teacher if he or she can do this for
you).
7. Tendons
Muscles are attached to bones by means of tendons. Tendons are
made of a type of connective tissue that contains lots of white fibres
made of collagen. It is this collagen that gives the connective tissue
its properties.
Your task now is to remove all the muscles neatly from the
bones.
As you do so, try and pull one or two off the bone using your
fingers or forceps; remove the rest using scissors or the scalpel.
Look carefully at how the tendon joins the muscle.
If necessary dissect into the muscle tissue.
Collect ALL the muscles you remove.
You should now have a pile of fat and a pile of muscle.
Weigh and record the mass of subcutaneous fat and muscle in
the table where you recorded the mass of the wing.
1. How firmly are the muscles attached to bones?
2. Approximately how many muscles did you remove?
3. Describe how the tendon and muscle join.
4. Write down four adjectives to describe collagen from what you
can observe.
8. Bone
You should now be left with some bones joined together with
skin, muscles and 'proper' connective tissue removed.
Use the miniature hacksaw to cut a bone in half.
1. Describe what you see after sawing the bone in half.
2. Use the vernier calliper to measure the thickness of the bone
wall.
3. The bones of most birds are hollow. Why are hollow bones an
advantage for a bird?
9. Ligaments
Ligaments look similar to tendons and have a very similar histology
with lots of collagen fibres. Ligaments join bone to bone, and also form
protective capsular ligaments around synovial joints by for instance,
keeping in the lubricating synovial fluid.
Cut through and carefully remove the capsular ligament of a
large joint using your scissors.
1. Can you see internal ligaments?
2. Write down three observable characteristics of the ligament you
cut.
10. Cartilage
Look at the end of a bone and find the cartilage (it is pearly white
in colour).
Try to remove it from the bone. Then try to scratch it first with
your nail and, then with something very hard and sharp.
1. Describe what you observe.
2. What type of cartilage is this?
3. What do you think the function of cartilage is?
4. What common, man-made material is closest in its properties to
cartilage?
Questions
Data (show all working)
Tissue Mass, correct to 1 decimal place (g)
Entire wing
Skin
Muscle
Subcutaneous Fat
1. Muscle is eaten for its protein. Muscle is made of protein. What
percentage of this wing is muscle?
2. What total percentage of this wing was made up of fat?
3. Calculate the total fat-to-muscle ratio as a percentage.
4. Look at the price per kilo for these wings. Assuming the wings
have the same mass, and there are 6 per pack, how much does one
wing cost?
5. You are paying the above price only to really eat the muscle
(protein), what is the actual price per kilo you are paying for the meat
(protein) in this case?
Cleaning
Tidy and clean the work station thoroughly after each session. Wash
instruments in hot soapy water with a sponge/scourer, rinse in the cold
sink (NOT under running water) and dry with a cloth. Replace
apparatus in the correct containers. Scalpel blades are to be removed,
cleaned, dabbed dry with roller-towel and returned to their envelopes.
