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Connective tissue
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Connective tissue is a fibrous tissue.[1] It is one of the four traditional classes of tissues (the others being epithelial, muscle, and nervous tissue). Connective Tissue (CT) is found throughout the body. It has 3 main components; cells, fibers, and extracellular matrix. Connective tissue makes up a variety of physical structures including, tendons, blood, cartilage, bone, adipose tissue, and lymphatic tissue. CT is classified into three subtypes; Embryonic CT, Proper CT, and Special CT. The Proper CT subtype include dense regular CT, dense irregular CT, and loose CT. The Special CT subtype includes Cartilage, Bone, Adipose Tissue, Blood, Hematopoietic Tissue (tissue that makes blood cells) and Lymphatic Tissue. Collagen is the main protein of connective tissue in animals and the most abundant protein in mammals, making up about 25% of the total protein content.[2]

Contents
1 Fiber types and characteristics of the connective tissue 2 Disorders of connective tissue 3 Staining of connective tissue 4 References 5 External links

Fiber types and characteristics of the connective tissue

Not to be confused with muscle fibers Characteristics of Connective tissue: Cells are separated Matrix - non-living material for the nourishing of cells Fibers. Not all types of connective tissues are fibrous though. Examples are adipose tissue and blood. Adipose tissue gives "mechanical cushion" to our body. The matrix of blood is plasma. Types of connective tissue Tissue Purpose Components Location

Collagenous fibers Elastic fibers Reticular

Alpha polypeptide tendon, ligament, skin, cornea, cartilage, bone, blood vessels, gut, chains and intervertebral disc. elastic microfibrill & elastin extracellular matrix

fibers

liver, bone marrow, lympatic organs

Disorders of connective tissue

Main article: Connective tissue disease Various connective tissue conditions have been identified; these can be both inherited and environmental. Marfan syndrome - a genetic disease causing abnormal fibrillin. Scurvy - caused by a dietary deficiency in vitamin C, leading to abnormal collagen. Ehlers-Danlos syndrome - deficient type III collagen- a genetic disease causing progressive deterioration of collagens, with different EDS types affecting different sites in the body, such as joints, heart valves, organ walls, arterial walls, etc. Loeys-Dietz syndrome - a genetic disease related to Marfan syndrome, with an emphasis on vascular deterioration. Pseudoxanthoma elasticum - an autosomal recessive hereditary disease, caused by calcification and fragmentation of elastic fibres, affecting the skin, the eyes and the cardiovascular system. Systemic lupus erythematosus - a chronic, multisystem, inflammatory disorder of probable autoimmune etiology, occurring predominantly in young women. Osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease) - caused by insufficient production of good quality collagen to produce healthy, strong bones. Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva - disease of the connective tissue, caused by a defective gene which turns connective tissue into bone. Spontaneous pneumothorax - collapsed lung, believed to be related to subtle abnormalities in connective tissue. Sarcoma - a neoplastic process originating within connective tissue.

Staining of connective tissue

For microscopic viewing the majority of the connective tissue staining techniques color tissue fibers in contrasting shades. Collagen may be differentially stained by any of the following techniques: Van Gieson's stain Masson's Trichrome stain Mallory's Aniline Blue stain Azocarmine stain Krajian's Aniline Blue stain Eosin

References
1. ^ "connective tissue (http://www.mercksource.com/pp/us/cns/cns_hl_dorlands_split.jsp? pg=/ppdocs/us/common/dorlands/dorland/eight/000109061.htm) " at Dorland's Medical Dictionary 2. ^ Di Lullo, G. A. (2002). "Mapping the Ligand-binding Sites and Disease-associated Mutations on the Most Abundant Protein in the Human, Type I Collagen" (http://www.jbc.org/cgi/content/abstract/277/6/4223) . Journal of Biological Chemistry 277 (6): 422331. doi:10.1074/jbc.M110709200

(http://dx.doi.org/10.1074%2Fjbc.M110709200) . PMID 11704682 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11704682) . http://www.jbc.org/cgi/content/abstract/277/6/4223.

External links
connective+tissue (http://www.emedicinehealth.com/script/main/srchcont_dict.asp? src=connective+tissue) at eMedicine Dictionary Encyclopaedia Britannica, Connective Tissue (http://www.britannica.com/eb/article9110162/connective-tissue) Overview at kumc.edu (http://www.kumc.edu/instruction/medicine/anatomy/histoweb/ct/ct.htm) UIUC Histology Subject 230 (https://histo.life.illinois.edu/histo/atlas/oimages.php?oid=230) Connective tissue atlas at uiowa.edu (http://www.medicine.uiowa.edu/anatomy/dental/genhisto/GHWIN/unit3/index.html) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connective_tissue" Categories: Connective tissue This page was last modified on 5 August 2011 at 01:26. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of use for details. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.