Large bowel, light micrograph. Mucosa of the large intestine shows many deep epithelial crypts also known as colonic glands. Goblet cells are stained magenta due to their mucin contents which is secreted as mucus to facilitate the passage of faeces along the colon. The dominant cell population of the glands are absorptive cells (blue) that extract water and electrolytes to desiccate the luminal contents. The tissue deep to the glands is the submucosa. Paraffin section, haematoxylin and periodic acid-Schiff stain. Magnification: x75 when width printed at 10cm.