Tissue science and histology in the system of biomedical scientific and educational disciplines

In this article, the authors analyze the role and significance of histology in biomedical scientific and educational disciplines (history, present condition, and controversial issues). This study discusses the formation and development of histology—the science of tissues—and the emergence of notions about tissues and tissue classification. When describing the microscopic structure of plant organs in 1671, the English botanist and physician N. Grew (1641–1712) used the term “tissue” for the first time. In the mid-19th century, German histologists R.A. Kölliker (1817–1905) and F. Leydig (1821–1908) established the present scientific classification of tissues. These authors classified tissues into four main groups: epithelium, connective tissue and blood, nervous tissue, and muscle tissue. Russian scientists A.A. Zavarzin and N.G. Khlopin made significant contributions to developing tissue classification and evolution problems. It is worth noting that the term “tissue,” which was initially interpreted as purely morphological, has gained physiological content; that is, the idea of “tissue” has become a morphofunctional concept. The idea of tissue stability during the ontogenesis stages of organisms is one of the significant paradigms of histology. Fabric variability is allowed within certain limits within the tissue group to which the fabric belongs. There is no compelling evidence of tissue transition from one tissue group to another. The first histology departments appeared in European higher educational institutions in the middle of the 19th century and Russian higher educational institutions in the late 1960s. As a scientific discipline, histology has not exhausted its capabilities; therefore, excluding histology from the nomenclature of scientific specialization is incorrect.