Connective tissue Flashcards
What is connective tissue made of?
Cells and ECM
What compromises ECM?
Protein fibres (e.g. collagen, elastic and reticular)
Ground substance (e.g. proteoglycans, glycoproteins, GAGs)
What is connective tissue bounded by?
Basal laminae of epithelia and basal laminae of muscle cells
What does ground substance entail?
Proteoglycan, GAGs, polysaccharides
What is the role of ground substance?
Resistance to compression
What is the role of fibres of the ECM?
Tensile strength, support and anchorage
What are the fibres of ECM?
Collagen, fibrillin, elastin
What are the cells of the connective tissue?
Resident cells synthesise ECM (fibroblast), migratory cells (mast cell), macrophages
What is the role of ECM?
Surround and support cells within connective tissue
What feature of tissue does ECM determine?
Mechanical properties
What are 4 types of connective tissue?
Loose, dense connective tissue
Elastic tissue
Adipose tissue
What is loose connective tissue known as?
Areolar tissue
What are types of dense connective tissue?
Dense regular, dense irregular
What type of connective tissue is more common: loose or dense?
Loose
Where does loose connective tissue lie?
Beneath epithelia covering body surface and line internal surface of body
Describe structure of collagen in loose connective tissue?
Loose/dense
Describe loose connective tissue and its resistance to stress
Delicate, flexible and well vascularsed, not resistant to stress.
What type of connective tissue is found deeper, dense or loose?
Loose found below dense tissue
Compare ground substance in loose and dense CT?
Less in dense CT
Which type of CT has more cell types, loose or dense?
Dense
Describe collagen arrangement in dense CT. What impact does this have on property?
Densely packed - less flexible and resistant to stress
Where is dense irregular CT found?
Dermis, anchoring epithelium
Describe structure of dense irregular connective tissue?
Collagen fibres packed densely, no orientation
Fibroblast arranged in rows between collagen fibre bundles
Describe dense regular connective tissue?
Collagen fibres aligned parallel manner, fibroblasts between bundles.
Compare resistance to stress of dense regular and irregular connective tissue
Dense irregular; resistant in all directions
Dense regular: resistance against forces pulling in a straight line
Where is dense regular connective tissue found?
Tendon, ligament, apopneuroses
What do tendons do?
Connect muscle to bone
Structure of tendons, how does this link to resistance against stress?
Parallel bundles of collagen fibres, provide resistance to tensile stress and proteoglycans allow resistance to compressive stress
In and H and E stain, what do H and E bind and what’s the colour change?
Hematocylin - -ve charged DNA and RNA (acidic) - blue
Eosin - +ve charged proteins (basic) - red/pink
What do ligmaents do?
Join bone to bone
Compare structure of ligaments and tendons?
Fibres arranged less regularly in tendons
Structure of ligaments?
Fibres and fibroblasts arranged in parallel
What do aponeuroses do?
Resemble flattened tendons (attach sheet like muscle)