Connective tissue pt3 Flashcards
What 2 main categories are connective tissues divided into?
-Connective tissue proper - loose, dense (dense irregular and dense regular- collagenous or elastic), reticular, adipocyte
-Specialised connective tissue- vascular, skeletal
What is loose (areolar) connective tissue?
-Mostly ground substance
-Houses fibroblasts, adipocytes, 3 types of protein fibres (collagen, reticular and elastin fibres), immune system cells
-Surrounds bvs, nerves, muscles, organs
-Separates skin from deeper structures
-Extensive blood supply
What is dense connective tissue divided into?
-Dense irregular connective tissue
-Dense regular collagneous tissue
-Dense regular elastic tissue
What is dense irregular connective tissue?
-Mostly disorganised collagen bundles
-Strong and resists tension in all 3 planes of movement
-Found in high tension areas like dermis of skin and surrounding organs and joints
-collagen fibres arranged randomly - similar to loose but has more fibres
What is dense regular collagenous connective tissue?
-Organised in parallel collagen bundles to resist tensile forces
-Fibroblasts located between collagen bundles
-Resistant to tension in one plane
-Constitute tendons and ligaments that are subject to tension in on eplane movement
What is dense regular elastic connective tissue?
-Parallel-oriented elastic fibres with randomly oriented collagen fibres
-Few fibroblasts scattered throughout the tissue
-Found in walls of organs that must stretch to perform their function - large bvs, ligaments
What is reticular connective tissue?
-Composed of reticular fibres produced by fibroblasts
-Form fine network that can support small structures like blood and lymphatic vessels
-Found in lymph nodes and spleen
-Forms part of basement membrane that supports all epithelia and internal structures of liver and bone marrow
What is adipose tissue?
-Adipocytes are main cell type w surrounding fibroblasts and ECM
-Adipocytes can increase in size to a point where fibroblasts and ECM are barely visible
-Fat storage, insulation, shock absorption, protection
-Found in buttocks, breast, abdomen
-White or brown adipose tissue (unilocular vs multilocular)
