A small chunk of nervous tissue of spinal cord was spread on a microscope slide to show neurons and glial cells. Glial cells are smaller and in larger quantities than neurons. The neuron shown is large and has multiple processes coming out of the soma.

Virtual microscope slides of the nervous system - brain, spinal cord, dorsal root ganglia, sympathetic ganglia, parasympathetic ganglia, and peripheral nerves.

Observing the nervous tissue under the light microscope will find neurons (nerve cells) and supportive (glial cells) in its parenchyma. And you already know that the neuron is the structural and functional unit of the nervous system.

One cell providing support to neurons of the CNS is the astrocyte, so named because it appears to be star-shaped under the microscope (astro- = “star”). Astrocytes have many processes extending from their main cell body (not axons or dendrites like neurons, just cell extensions).

One cell providing support to neurons of the CNS is the astrocyte, so named because it appears to be star-shaped under the microscope (astro- = “star”, cyte = “cell”). Astrocytes have many processes extending from their main cell body (not axons or dendrites like neurons, just cell extensions).