The Department of Histology and Cell Pathology in Zabrze was established in October 1946 and it serves three purposes:

·      Teaching

·      Clinical support

·      Basic and applied research

   The special line of research of the Department covers certain aspects of chronic inflammation and coagulation in many pathological conditions including myocarditis, thyroiditis and etc. It is worth emphasising that our highly educated research team works in nanotechnologies. We cooperate with many laboratories, research institutions and hospitals. One of them is Silesian Centre for Heart Disease in Zabrze. It is a modern, highly specialised hospital, recognised nationwide and internationally for its outstanding clinical and scientific achievements in cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery. In addition, the Department makes, maintains and updates the histology slide collection. These microscope slide sets are central for teaching the normal appearance of cells and tissues of the body.

      The Department possesses (to the best of our knowledge) one of the biggest collections of heart biopsies (more than three thousands) in Europe. We also have a large base of other human and animal tissue biopsies including renal, skin and thyroid tissues.

     We provide support for research in cell pathology using histochemistry, immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, in situ hybridization, electron force microscopy, confocal and cryoelectron microscopy techniques. Accordingly, we offer a wide range of services such as:

·      Routine histology and histopathology services including tissue preparation, processing, sectioning and staining. The Department is equipped with the state-of-the-art tools to receive reliable high-quality sections both frozen and paraffin-embedded tissues.

·      Immunohistological identification of new antigens using modified post-sectioning fixatives, antibodies, antigen retrieval methods, buffers and enzymatic pre-treatments.

·      The study of cell structure and function using immunoelectron microscopy, confocal microscopy and other techniques.  

·      The Laboratory also plays a significant role in research staff training in histological techniques and provides ongoing quality control and consultation on appropriate tissue techniques for individual projects.

Professor Romuald Wojnicz, who is the chief of the Department, is an internationally recognised clinician and scientist. He was the principal investigator of six research projects of the Polish Ministry of Health and the principal investigator of the Scientific Grant from Pfeizer, NY, USA. Since 1992 he has been a coordinator of Myocardial Disease Study Group on inflammatory myocardial disease and heart failure research at the Department of Cardiology, Silesian Medical University in Zabrze. He has published manuscripts in prestigious cardiological and pathological magazines such as:

Circulation (“Randomized, placebo-controlled study for immunosuppressive treatment of inflammatory dilated cardiomyopathy: two-year follow -up results” Circulation 2001; Vol.104 No.1, p.39-45).
European Heart Journal (“Immunohistological diagnosis of myocarditis. Potential role of sarcolemmal induction of the MHC and ICAM-1 in the detection of autoimmune mediated myocyte injury” Eur Heart J 1998; Vol.19, p.1564-1572).
American Journal of Cardiology (“Usefulness of Atorvastatin in Patients with Heart Failure Due to Inflammatory Dilated Cardiomyopathy and Elevated Cholesterol Levels” Am J Cardiol. 2006; 97: 899-904).
American Heart Journal (“Adjunctive therapy with low-molecular-weight heparin in patients with chronic heart failure secondary to dilated cardiomyopathy: one-year follow-up results of the randomized trial” Am Heart J. 2006; 152 (713): e1-e7.
Cardiology (“Therapeutic window for calcium-channel blockers in the management of dilated cardiomyopathy. A prospective, two-centre study on non-advanced disease”. Cardiology 2010; 117:148-154
Journal of Clinical Pathology (“Tissue Factor is Unregulated in Microvascular Endothelial Cells of Patients with Heart Failure”). J Clin Pathol 2016;69:221-225)
Professor Wojnicz is a member of the Polish Cardiac Society, the European Society of Cardiology and International Federation of Societies for Histochemistry and Cytochemistry.