HBT Connective Tissue Flashcards
What are the functions of connective tissue?
- Support and shape
- Protection and Defence
- Transport
- Insulation/energy storage
- Forms skeleton
How do you classify connective tissue?
Proper, specialised or embryonic
What types of proper connective tissue are there?
- Loose: areolar, vessels, nerves, glands
- Dense: stronger, more fibrous (high tensile strength)
What types of dense proper connective tissue are there?
- Irregular- random arrangement of fibres
- Regular- regular arrangement of fibres
Give examples of specialised connective tissue
- Adipose
- Elastic
- Reticular
- Bone and cartilage
- Blood
Give examples of embryonic connective tissue
- Mesenchyme
- Mucous
Describe elastic fibre
- Collagen type 1 protein (thick bundles and sheets)
- Reticulin (fine mesh- structural support, type 3)
- Elastin and fibrillin (flexible fibres capable of stretch and recoil)
Describe cartilage
- Lacks blood supply
- Cells- arranged in 4-6, flattened at periphery- chondrocytes
- ECM- firm gel, resilient- proteoglycan
What is connective tissue comprised of?
- Cells- fixed cells or wandering
- Extracellular matrix (ECM)- Amorphous ground substance
Describe bone
- Highly vascular, able to repair, may be compact or spongy
- Cells- osteoblasts/cytes
- ECM- rigid
What are the two types of adipose tissue?
- Unilocular (white fat)
- Multilocular (brown fat)
Describe unilocular adipose tissue
Adipocytes occupied by single, large lipid droplets
Describe multilocular adipose tissue
Adipocytes contain multiple, small lipid droplets
Describe blood
- Cells: neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils and basophils
- ECM: plasma
