Connective tissue - Cartilage Flashcards
What are the 4 major tissue types in the body? E
Epithelial tissue, connective tissue, muscular tissue and nervous tissue.
What are the different types of connective tissue?
What are the two components of connective tissue?
Connective tissue always connects two things together.
Why is a fish tank like connective tissue?
In the fish tank you have ground substance (water, fills the emptyness).
The plants are fibres like elastin or fibrin.
The fish are the cells (two classes: migrant cells and migrant cells).
What are the two fibres of connective tissue and their main functional difference?
Collagen and elastin.
Collagen=strength.
Elastin=stretchy.
Explain what ground substance is and how it fits into the ECM?
What are the main properties of ground substance?
ECM is a combination of fibres plus ground substance.
Main property of ground substance: GAG are negatively charged and don’t stick with eachother. They attract water.
This means that they don’t touch eachother and are freely floating. This allows a highly hydrated medium which the fibres can float in and it is permeable to nutrients and metabolites. Also cells can free float in the matrix.
Useful at distributing mechanical stress when needed (e.g. cartilage).
What is the main cell which creates cartilage?
How do they ‘live’ in the cartilage?
What do the above turn into when they mature and what do these cells do?
Condroblasts (however if collagen is needed they will change to fibroblasts).
Live in lacunae which are empty spaces.
Cell nests form when a chondroblasts divides.
Condrocytes: do a similar job to chondroblasts but are more matured and less active.
Explain what happens to the GAGs when they are compressed?
Water is squeezed out, the negatively charged GAGs are forced to come closer together to occupy a smaller volume when compression is released they spring back to their original position. This mechanism helps in the weight baring of the cartilage.
Explain the zonal organisation of articular cartilage?
What are the microscopic differences between hyaline cartilage, fibrocartilage and yellow elastic cartilage?
Hyaline (synovial joints): Clear looking with mostly with collagen type 2 (small and cant see). Pericondrium is type 1 collagen.
Fibrocartilage (meniscus, labrum) : mainly type 1 collagen, rows of condrocytes lined between collagen, fibroblasts produce proteoglycans and collagen and act as stem cells for deeper layers.
Yellow elastic fibres (organs of voice production such as larynx and earlobes): type 2 collagen and elastic fibres.
How does cartialge get nutrients?
Explain synovial fluid and lubrication
