a description of the basic types of connective tissue for high school physiology students

1. Connective Tissue

2. Connective Tissue: Form
Connective tissue is the most diverse type of
tissue. The different forms look nothing like
each other.
Here are the types:

3. Connective Tissue: Form
1. Connective Tissue Proper

4. Connective Tissue: Form
1. Connective Tissue Proper
• Matrix + a syrupy liquid “ground”
(like the deepest layer of skin, the dermis)

5. You’ve already seen the matrix of Connective Tissue
Proper. It was called Extra Cellular Matrix (ECM) in
the movie “How to Build a Beating Heart”. Under a
microscope, it looks like this.
It is a webby mesh of
fibers made of collagen
and elastin, all filled in
with a gel-like “ground”.
In this picture the big
round thing is a red
blood cell (RBC).

6. Connective Tissue: Form
1. Connective Tissue Proper
• Matrix + a syrupy liquid “ground”
• Fatty tissue (adipose tissue)

7. Adipose tissue is made up of big cells that contain lipids
held in place by an ECM. The simple name for adipose is
fat. There is adipose all over our bodies, under our skin,
and around our organs. It’s not just “junk in the trunk”!
Some places fat can end
up in our bodies can be
particularly dangerous.
This heart has a thick layer
of adipose tissue on it.
(The yellow stuff.) This
makes the heart work
harder than it should.

8. Here you can see a microscopic view of adipose
cells, called adipocytes. They are filled with lipids
(oils) and the nuclei are pushed off to the side. They
are loosely arranged, which is why fat is jiggly.

9. Connective Tissue: Form
1. Connective Tissue Proper
• Matrix + a syrupy liquid “ground”
• Fatty tissue (adipose tissue)
• Tendons

10. Tendons are made of collagen fibers. The fibers are
in dense bundles, which makes them look white and
sort of shiny. Tendons connect muscle to bone.

11. Connective Tissue: Form
1. Connective Tissue Proper
• Matrix + a syrupy liquid “ground”
• Fatty tissue (adipose tissue)
• Tendons
• Ligaments

12. Ligaments are also made of collagen fibers, but they
connect bone to bone. The most famous ligaments in
the body are probably the ones in the knee joint (the
ACL, PCL, MCL, and LCL), because we hear about them
when people have knee injuries, like a torn ACL.

13. Connective Tissue: Form
2. Fluid Connective Tissue

14. Connective Tissue: Form
2. Fluid Connective Tissue
• Cells are in a liquid ground
• Blood
• Lymph

15. Red Blood Cells (RBC) float around in a thin liquid
ground called plasma.

16. Connective Tissue: Form
3. Supporting Connective Tissue

17. Connective Tissue: Form
3. Supporting Connective Tissue
• Cartilage
• Bone

18. Supporting Connective Tissue can have a rigid matrix,
which will make it hard (bone), or a flexible matrix
(cartilage). Cartilage makes up the springy parts of our
skeleton (ears and tip of nose) and lets our joints slide
smoothly, like in the shoulder joint, below.

19. Connective Tissue: Function

20. Connective Tissue: Function
1. Support & protection (bone)

21. Connective Tissue: Function
1. Support & protection (bone)
2. Transportation of materials (blood)

22. Connective Tissue: Function
1. Support & protection (bone)
2. Transportation of materials (blood)
3. Storage of energy reserves (adipose)

23. Connective Tissue: Function
1. Support & protection (bone)
2. Transportation of materials (blood)
3. Storage of energy reserves (adipose)
4. Defense (antibodies, infection fighters)

24. The End!