Histology of Connective Tissue, Cartilage, and Bone Flashcards
Connective tissue components
Cells, fibers, ECM
Extracellular matrix components
AKA ground substance, collagens, noncollagenous glycoproteins, proteoglycans
Connective tissue resident cell
Fibroblast
Fibroblast function
Production and maintenance of the ECM
Connective tissue immigrant cells
Macrophages, mast cells, plasma cells
Connective tissue roles
Immune and inflammatory responses, tissue repair after injury
Types of connective tissue proper
Loose CT, Dense CT
Types of dense connective tissue
Dense regular, dense irregular
Types of specialized connective tissue
Hematopoietic tissue, adipose tissue, cartilage, bone
Loose connective tissue
Contains more cells than collagen fibers, found surrounding blood vessels, nerves, muscles
Dense connective tissue
Contains more collagen fibers than cells, can be regular or irregular, poorly vascularized
Dense regular connective tissue
Collagen fibers are preferentially oriented, found in tendons, ligaments, cornea
Dense irregular connective tissue
Collagen fibers are randomly oriented, found in the dermis of the skin and walls of the intestine
Glycosaminoglycans
AKA GAGs, long unbranched polysaccharides consisting of repeating disaccharide units, highly negatively charged, associate with larger amounts of water to make hydrated gels
Examples of GAGs
Hyaluronic acid, dermatan sulfate, chondriotin sulfate, herparin, heparan sulfate, keratan sulfate
Proteoglycans
Composed of a protein core to which at least one glycosaminoglycan is covalently bound, highly negatively charged and help to organize and stabilize the matrix through interactions with other molecules, can also create a barrier to the passage of positively charged molecules into the basal lamina of epithelial cells
Examples of proteoglycans
Decorin, aggrecan
Adhesive glycoproteins
Help to facilitate the attachment of cells to the ECM, affect the growth, survival, morphology, differentiation and motility of cells, consist of disulfide-bonded subunits with binding sites
Examples of glycoproteins
Laminin, fibronectin
Collagen
Most abundant protein, types I, II, III are the most abundant, form fibrils of similar structure to provide tensile strength to tissues, made up of the collagen alpha chains that associate in a right-handed triple helix (every third amino acid is glycine), these molecules then associate with each other to form collagen fibers
Formation of collagen by fibroblasts
Translation of the alpha-chain mRNA in the RER to individual alpha-chains that are modified by glycosylation and hydroxylation, alpha-chains assemble into triple helix with non-helical ends called pro-peptides, these form the soluble procollogen molecule, which is then secreted from the cell into the extracellular space and cleaved by proteases to make insoluble tropocollagen molecules that spontaneously assemble into collagen fibrils, these then associate with each other to form collagen fibers and are crosslinked by lysyl oxidase and mature collagen fibers are formed
Types of cartilage
Hyaline, elastic, fibrous
Cartilage
Consists of chrondrocytes embedded in ECM, usually surrounded by perichondrium, avascular, nutrition through the ECM, modest repair capacity
Perichondrium
Contains stem cells that differentiate into chondroblasts that give rise to chondrocytes