Types of Connective Tissue

Ø Loose connective tissue

§ Areolar tissue

§ Adipose tissue

§ Reticular tissue

Ø Dense connective tissue

§ Dense regular connective tissue

§ Dense irregular connective tissue

1) Loose Areolar Tissue

• Widely distributed, delicate, flexible, well-vascularized, flexible and not very resistant to stress

• Embedding medium for many structures including blood vessels & nerves, Stroma of most organs

• Chief examples are s/c tissue, mesentery, omentum

• All the three basic components of CT are best represented

• Two most common cell types are fibroblasts & histiocytes

• Among fibrous components, collagen fibres are most abundant

• The ground substance is relatively fluid like and occupies many small areas (areolae) in which no structure is seen in H&E stain

2) Adipose Tissue

• Fat Cells
• White or unilocular adipose tissue
• Brown or multilocular adipose tissue
• ‘Signet ring’
• More proportion of cells than intercellular substance
• Found wherever areolar tissue is located

Ø Functions

• Temperature regulation

• Energy reserve

• Mechanical

3) Reticular Tissue

• Specialized fibroblasts, reticular cells and reticular fibers

• Reticular cells are ‘stellate’ shaped with long processes

• reticular tissue forms a delicate 3-D network.

• Protoplasmic processes of reticular cells are wrapped around or extend along reticular fibers forming a ‘sponge-like’ appearance

• Present in liver, spleen, kidney, bone marrow and lymphoid tissue

Dense connective tissue

• Closely packed fibers

• Same components found in loose connective tissue, but there are fewer cells and a clear predominance of collagen fibers and lesser amount of ground substance

• Less flexible and far more resistant to stress

• Two types

• Dense regular connective tissue

• Dense irregular connective tissue

1) Dense Regular Connective Tissue

• Dense fibers are arranged parallel to each other in the form of cords or bands

• Examples: tendons, aponeurosis, ligaments

2) Dense Irregular Connective Tissue

• Occurs in the from of sheets

• The component fibers interlace to form dense network

• Examples: dermis of skin, periosteum, perichondrium, capsules of some organs (liver, testis, lymph nodes)

Elastic Tissue

• Composed of bundles of thick, parallel elastic fibers

• Space between these fibers is occupied by thin collagen fibers and flattened fibroblasts

• Very Elastic

• Found in the lungs, walls of arteries, bronchial tubes, ligaments of the vertebral column and in the suspensory ligament of the penis.

• Need to clear your concept? Also see

• Connective tissue (general aspect)
  

• Histological slides of loose connective tissue

• Histological slides of adipose tissue

• Histological slides of dense connective tissue