Connective tissues

Connective tissues( PART /1 )
Connective tissues of the body are defined as the materials which connect other tissue types together. This can be as simple as the basement membrane associated with epithelial types, or as complex as the long bones of the body. Generally, the types of connective tissues are divided into six main groups

Loose ordinary connective tissue.a
Adipose tissue .b
Blood and blood forming tissues.c
Dense ordinary connective tissue. d
Cartilage. e
Bone.f
Function
Connective tissue has a wide variety of functions that depend on the types of cells and the different classes of fibers involved. Loose and dense irregular connective tissue, formed mainly by fibroblasts and collagen fibers, have an important role in providing a medium for oxygen and nutrients to diffuse from capillaries to cells, and carbon dioxide and waste substances to diffuse from cells back into circulation. They also allow organs to resist stretching and tearing forces. Dense regular connective tissue, which forms organized structures, is a major functional component of tendons, ligaments and aponeuroses, and is also found in highly specialized organs such as the cornea Elastic fibers, made from elastin and fibrillin, also provide resistance to stretch forces They are found in the walls of large blood vessels and in certain ligaments, particularly in the ligamenta flava
In hematopoietic and lymphatic tissues, reticular fibers made by reticular cells provistroma—or structural support—for the parenchyma—or functional part—of the organ.
Mesenchyme is a type of connective tissue found in developing organs of embryos that is capable of differentiation into all types of mature connective tissue Another type of relatively undifferentiated connective tissue is mucous connective tissue, found inside the umbilical cord.
Various type of specialized tissues and cells are classified under the spectrum of connective tissue, and are as diverse as brown and white adipose tissue, blood, cartilage and bone Cells of the immune system, such as macrophages, mast cells, plasma cells and eosinophils are found scattered in loose connective tissue, providing the ground for starting inflammatory and immune responses upon the detection of antigens.


Structure of connective tissue
Connective tissue can be broadly subdivided into connective tissue proper, and special connective tissue. Connective tissue proper consists of loose connective tissue and dense connective tissue (which is further subdivided into dense regular and dense irregular connective tissues