• Connective tissue

Definitions
• Tissue that supports, protects and gives structure to other tissues and
organs in the body
• Connective tissue also stores fat, helps move nutrients and other
substances between tissues and organs, and helps repair damaged
tissue.
• Connective tissue is made up of cells, fibers, and a gel-like
substance(amorphous ground substance).
• They originate from the mesodermal germ layer
Types
• There are four main types of connective tissue;
• Blood
• Bone
• Cartilage and
• Connective tissue proper
• All connective tissues are made up of cells, large amounts of
amorphous ground substance and protein fibers
• ground substance is composed of glucosaminoglycans(GAGs),
proteoglycans and glycoproteins
Connective tissue proper
• Includes;
• Loose or areolar connective tissue and
• Dense connective tissue; made up of regular and irregular dense
connective tissue
• Connective tissue fibers are histologically distinguishable as; collagen,
reticular and elastic fibers
• Numerous cell types are found in the connective tissue. Three most
common are; fibroblast, macrophage and mast cells.
Loose areola connective tissue
• Is the most widespread in the body
• Characterized by abundance of ground substance, with thin and few
fibers and cells
• The main cellular elements are fibroblasts and a smaller amount of
adipocytes
• Located directly beneath the epidermis of the skin
• Functions to keep the skin flexible and elastic
• Provides cushioning layer that prevents friction
Characteristics of loose ct
• An abundance of ground substance
• Thin and few filaments and cells
• Fibers are secreted by cells known as fibroblasts
Dense regular connective tissue
• Mainly made up of type 1 collagen fibers
• The collagen fibers are densely packed together and arranged in
parallel to each other
• Mutilayered arrangement of fibers to form sheets of tissue
• This arrangement allows the fibers to have good resistance to forces
pulling along a single axis. It also gives some ability to stretch
• Almost completely filled with bundles of collagen and few fibroblasts
Location and function
• Dense connective tissue is found in ligaments and tendons
• Ligaments link bone to bone at joints
• Tendons form connections between bones or cartilage and muscles
• Others are inner layer of skin and sclera(white outer layer of the eye)
• Aponeurotic fascia
• Function; provides strong connections and resistance to force in the
musculoskeletal system
Dense irregular connective tissue
• A type of dense connective tissue in which the extracellular fibers, in
particular the collagen fibers, are not arranged in parallel bundles
• This makes up submucosa of the digestive tract, lymph nodes and
some types of fascia
• Other examples are periosteum, perichondrium of bones and tunica
albuginea of testis
characteristics
• The collagen fibers are irregularly arranged in a compact and
interwoven web
• It contains small amount of ground substance and has few cells
mostly fibroblasts
• Multilayered arrangement of fibers is not found in this tissue
• Main function; supports and protects organs by resisting tearing
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