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Ruth Ann has taught college-level Science and has a master's degree in Biology.
To define cytology, we can break down the word into two parts. The suffix -logy, or -ology means the 'study of.' To find out what we're studying, we look to the prefix cyto, which means 'cell' and is derived from the Greek word kytos, meaning 'hollow vessel' or 'container.' Put these two together, and we have our definition: cytology is the study of cells. More specifically, cytology is a branch of science that studies how cells work and grow and what they're made of.
The history of cell science is closely linked with the invention and advancement of the microscope. Robert Hooke was the first scientist to use the word 'cell' in 1665 when he looked at slices of cork through a lit compound microscope (a microscope with two or more lenses) and observed very small, irregular boxes that reminded him of tiny rooms, or cells. Hooke wrote about his findings and drew the structures he saw in his book Micrographia, which was published in 1665.
We now know that the small 'cells' Hooke observed were actually the walls of plant cells that had died. Anton van Leeuwenhoek used a more powerful magnifying microscope to look more closely at specimens found in human body fluids in 1683. He noticed tiny specimens that were capable of movement and, therefore, alive. Van Leeuwenhoek named these little moving objects animalcules. With his more advanced microscope, Van Leewenhoek was even able to observe structures within cells, including the nucleus of a red blood cell.
The importance of cells to all forms of life was not fully recognized until the development of cell theory. The earliest (classical) cell theory was developed in the 1838 by plant scientist Matthias Schleiden and animal scientist Theodor Schwann. They each came to the same conclusion that the living things they studied were composed of cells. The classical cell theory summarized the ideas of the previously mentioned scientists into the following points:
In 1858, Rudolf Virchow added to the classical cell theory with the idea that:
The late 19th century showed further advancement in cell biology, with more and more scientists coming up with ways to grow, study, and manipulate tissues and cells outside of a living body in a lab. Early 'cell food' mixtures included water, salt, sugar, and chemicals to control the levels of acid in the solution. Synthetic cell food, called cell media, was improved by adding amino acids and vitamins to the solutions.
New ways to look at cells under the microscope were made possible by the staining of cells. Special dyes were added to cells to make them easier to observe as far back as 1891. Now, there are many kinds of cellular staining, from simple dyes that absorb into different parts of the cell to chemicals that can make cells literally light up under the microscope.
Another breakthrough came in 1931, when Ernst Ruska developed the first electron microscope. The electron microscope worked by shooting beams of electrons through a very thin slice of specimen, which would bounce off and create a picture of the specimen on special film that would generate a highly detailed and magnified image. Certain types of electron microscopes are now capable of magnifying things by up to two million times their original size!
In the mid-20th century, George O. Gey was able to grow cancer cells taken from a woman named Henrietta Lacks. These cancer cells, now known as the HeLa cell line, were the first human cancer cells to be continuously grown in a lab. This was an astounding breakthrough in cell biology, providing a continuous line of cancer cells for scientists to do experiments and research on. The HeLa strain was used in research for the polio vaccine and also were the first human cells to be successfully cloned in 1955. Now, the HeLa cells are used around the world for continuing research on cancer, genetic studies, and more.
Cytology is important in modern-day medicine as well. Cytological tests are used to observe human cells to determine the risk of abnormalities and cancer. The Pap smear test looks at cells as opposed to pieces of tissue and is used to screen women for cervical cancer. Other types of cytological tests include examining urine for detecting diseases/cancer in the urinary tract and collecting fluid from the pleural space (the area that surrounds your lungs) to detect cancer cells in the lungs.
So, what have we learned? Cytology is a branch of science that allows scientists to 'zoom in' on the human body at a cellular level. We learned that the advancement of cytology was made possible by the improvement of the microscope as well as the progress made in culturing cells in the lab for experimentation and observation.
Today, cytology can be used to discover if there are too many of one kind of cell, or if a cell is growing and multiplying too fast, which may cause cancer in the body. Cytology can also test for cells that are harmful to the body, such as bacteria and parasites. Cytology allows us to observe and understand the smallest parts of our world.
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