What is the medical term for the study of tissues?

The medical term for the study of tissues is histology. It examines the microscopic structure of tissues from humans, animals, and plants, linking what tissues look like with how they function.

Histology developed alongside microscopy. In the 17th century, Italian scientist Marcello Malpighi used microscopes to study organs and identified capillaries in the lungs. The word histology appeared in print in 1819, in a book by German anatomist Karl Mayer. French anatomist Xavier Bichat had earlier helped establish the concept of tissues in anatomy.

Histology is not the same as anatomy, which traditionally studies body structures at a larger, visible scale. Cytology focuses primarily on individual cells, while histopathology applies microscopic tissue examination to disease. A biopsy examined for cancer, for example, is commonly evaluated through histopathology.

Modern histology usually involves fixing tissue, embedding it, cutting extremely thin sections, staining them, and viewing them under a microscope. Tissue specialists may identify cell types, patterns, inflammation, or abnormal growth that cannot be seen by examining an organ with the naked eye.