Lecture 8 Flashcards
What are the 2 types of soft tissue within a joint?
Cartilage
- Hyaline/Articular Cartilage
- Fibrocartilage
Why don’t soft tissues have any inorganic compounds?
So that cartilage doesn’t have the hard properties of bone.
Describe the general composition of cartilage and how nutrients is supplied to the joint.
Collagen fibres embedded in the ground substance, with chondrocytes living in lacunae. The cells at the joint are provided with nutrients by normal use of the joint allowing blood to flow to that region. (as cartilage is not vascular)
Describe the structure, properties and function of hyaline/articular cartilage.
- Have barely visible collagen fibres
- High water content in the matrix
- function is to reduce compression and friction between bones.
Describe the structure, properties and function of fibrocartilage.
- More visible collagen fibres that form bundles throughout the matrix
- The orientation of these fibres align with the direction of the force applied to the joint.
- Function is to reduce compression and tension.
Where is hyaline/articular cartilage found and what does it provide?
Hyaline/Articular cartilage is found at wrapped around the end of joints, and provide and frictionless surface, allowing for the bones that articulate at the joint to slide across each other without damaging each other.
Where is fibrocartilage found and what does it provide?
An example of fibrocartilage is the meniscus at the knee joint. The meniscus are concave discs of fibrocartilage that deepen the articulation at the knee joint (condyles of the femur has deeper articulation). Fibrocartilage can also adapt its shape to stresses on the joint in movement, allowing for resistance in tension and pulling.
Define congruence and what congruence is effected by.
Congruence is the amount of bone that meets bone at a joint. Congruence depends on the amount of soft tissue at the joint, if bony congruence is low, that means there is more soft tissue between the joint supporting it.
Explain the role of the menisci.
The menisci provide a larger surface area for the force to be distributed down the joint, and hence reduce the pressure on the hyaline/articular cartilage, shortening its degradation.
What is Dense Fibrous Connective Tissue?
Soft tissue that binds either bone to bone (ligaments) or bone to muscle (tendons).
What are the cells that are involved with making DFCT?
Fibroblasts and fibrocytes.
Why is the healing of DFCT slow?
minimal vascularity.
What is the purpose of DFCT and what protein helps with this?
Resist tension due to the collagen proteins.
Describe and explain the functions of Ligaments.
Ligaments connect bone to bone and hold them in place (restrict movement away from itself i.e. lateral restricts adduction).
Describe and explain the functions of tendons.
Tendons connect muscle to bone and help with movement by pulling on the bone when the muscles contract.
