Topic 9 - Trichrome Staining

Question 1

What is connective tissue and what is its function?

Answer 1

Connective tissue is a type of tissue that supports, connects and surrounds organs and other body parts.
Its function is to provide support, connection, protection and separation between all the different body parts.

Question 2

What are the 3 main elements that connective tissue comprised of?

Answer 2

Mainly 3 elements: Cells, Fibers and Ground substances

Question 3

What are 5 examples of cells in connective tissues?

Answer 3

• Fibroblasts
• Adipose Cells
• Osteocytes
• Lymphocytes
• White Blood Cells

Question 4

What are fibroblasts and what is their function?

Answer 4

Fibroblasts are predominant cells in connective tissue and are found in many types of connective tissue
Its function is to synthesize, secrete and maintain all major components of the extracellular matrix.

Question 5

What are the three types of fibers and how can we differentiate them?

Answer 5

Three types of fibers: Collagen, Reticular and Elastic fibers.
We can differentiate them with how strong/flexible they are. Collagen fiber is the most abundant and is the strongest and most flexible, with parallel fibers that resist stretch. Reticular fibers which are a collagen and glycoprotein network, are not as strong as collagen.

Question 6

What are ground substances?

Answer 6

They are fluid or gel between cells and fibers

Question 7

How can we classify connective tissue proper?

Answer 7

We can classify them as loose connective tissue, dense irregular connective tissue and dense regular connective tissue.

Question 8

What is loose connective tissue and where is it located?

Answer 8

Loose connective tissues are loosely packed cells and fibers with abundant ground substance.
They are located in spaces around muscles, surrounds blood vessels and supports functional tissue of organs. They are also located in subcutaneous areas.
e.g. areolar connective tissue.

Question 9

What is dense connective tissue and where are the two types located?

Answer 9

Dense connective tissues are densely packed cells and collagen fibers with less ground substance.
Dense regular refers to dense packing of collagen fibers in a characteristically parallel arrangement, like in tendons or ligaments.
Dense irregular refers to collagen fibers with random orientation, like in most organ capsules.

Question 10

What are the 4 types of specialised connective tissue?

Answer 10

Cartilage (hyaline/elastic), Blood, Bone and Adipose tissue.