Cytology and General Histology: Atlas

Nerve tissue

Any neuron includes a soma with nucleus (nerve cell body) and cell processes with side branches or collaterals (one process is efferent and is called axon, while the number of afferent ones, or dendrites, varies)
Depending on cell process number, all neurons are classified into unipolar, pseudounipolar, bipolar and multipolar neurons
Unipolar neurons only carry one cell process. In mammals and humans, they are found in the embryonic period only (initial step of neuron formation); there are no unipolar neurons in adults
Pseudounipolar neurons give rise to one cell process from any cell body, though it further divides in the shape of "T" letter into an axon and a dendrite (nerve impulse is transmitted directly from this dendrite to the axon without cell body traffic)
Bipolar neurons carry two cell processes (axon and dendrite) branching off from the opposite cell poles
Multipolar neurons have three or more cell processes, whereas one of them is an axon. This neuronal type is the most common in the body (up to 80 morphological subtypes)

Neurosecretory neurons represent a special subtype of multipolar neurons, which is intended to produce and secrete neurohormones

Their nerve cell bodies join into agglomerations called nuclei in the hypothalamus
The cells release neurohormones from terminal parts of their efferent cell processes into the capillary blood stream of the hypothalamic median eminence or neurohypophysis