What is Connective Tissue? Definition, Type, Function, Full Information

What is connective tissue, How many types of connective tissue, and what is the function of connective tissue, many such questions will be in your mind, so today we are going to answer these questions in this article, just You have to read from the beginning to end then only you will understand well, without wasting time let’s start.

What is connective tissue?

Such tissues connect or connect two parts or organs or areas of our body, then such tissues are called connective tissue.

Examples – Bone, cartilage, blood, etc.

This tissue is made up of mesoderm.

Loose connective tissue
Image credit – NCERT

The function of Mesoderm –

It works to connect two parts of the body and does the work of circulation. Bones, Cartilage, Tendons, and Ligaments do the work of connecting organs. It works to support the body. Her blood does the work of circulation. Circulation means flowing i.e. conducting.

Some special cells of connective tissue extract some fibers from inside themselves which come out and get collected, and those cells of connective tissue which extract fibers from inside themselves are called Fibroblast.

It is characteristic of connective tissue. What do these fibers do, these fibers bring flexibility and firmness, like – our nose and ears have flexibility and firmness, it is because of these fibers only.

Blood is a connective tissue, but it does not have fibers, so it is an exception to connective tissue. These fibers are of two types, collagen, and elastin. Both these types of fibers are secreted by fibroblast cells. The space between the fibroblast cells where these fibers are found is called the intercellular space.

How many types of connective tissue?

There are three types of connective tissue.

  1. Flexible or loose connective tissue
  2. Dense connective tissue
  3. Specialized connective tissue

1- What is flexible/loose connective tissue?

Tissues have large spaces between the fibers and the fibroblast cells. This means they are a little far apart, due to which they are loose-fitting, hence they are called flexible or loose connective tissue.

Examples – Areolar tissue, Adipore tissue, etc.

What is Areolar tissue?
  1. It is found under the skin.
  2. Gives support to the skin.
  3. There are three types of cells in this tissue. Mast cells, phagocytes, and fibroblast cells. Let’s see what these cells do, let’s assume that our skin is peeled a little, and when it is peeled, micro-organisms from outside enter inside, then the harmful micro-organisms are eaten or destroyed by the phagocytic cells and the When saved from these, the mast cell which is there, extracts a hormone called histamine and this hormone swells the blood vessel of the place where there is an injury, due to which more blood starts collecting there and the temperature there increases because Our blood gets warm and due to high temperature, harmful micro-organisms die.
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What is adipose tissue?

The tissues that store fat in our body are called adipose tissue.

These are also found under the skin.

Some animals have a thick layer of fat under the skin called blubber. Such creatures are found in very cold regions and this layer serves to preserve the body temperature of these creatures. Due to this, these creatures survive even in such low temperatures.

Example Seal.

2- What is dense connective tissue?

Such tissues in which the filaments and fibroblast cells are firmly attached to each other, then such tissues are called dense connective tissue. These are of two types.

  1. Dense regular connective tissue
  2. Dense irregular connective tissue.
Dense connective tissue

Dense regular connective tissue – In this tissue, the fibers are arranged in a regular arrangement, and are parallel to each other, hence they are called dense regular connective tissue.

Example – Tendon, ligament, etc. The function of tendons is to connect muscle to bone, and the function of ligaments is to connect bone to bone.

Dense irregular connective tissue – The fibers in this tissue are arranged in an irregular arrangement, hence they are called dense irregular connective tissue.

Example – They are found under the skin, and in the eyes, there is a sclera layer under the retina.

3- What is Specialized connective tissue?

There are two types of Specialized connective tissue.

Skeletal connective tissue – These tissues provide support to the body, and these tissues are of two types.

  1. Cartilage
  2. Bones
Specialised connective tissue
Specialised connective tissue
What is Cartilage?

It is slightly flexible, and along with this, if we talk about its structure, then its outer covering is called perichondrium and the cell present in it is called chondroblast. When these chondroblasts mature, they are called chondrocytes.

Now this chondrocyte forms a matrix and this matrix has an empty vacuole called a lacuna. In this one lacuna, there are 1-4 chondrocytes, and the substrate in it is called chondrin. This chondrin is rigid, particularly pliable, and anti-spinning. Specific flexible means bending or flexibility and anti-spindle means coming back to its original position after turning.

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For example, If we leave our earlobe after folding it, it comes back to its original position.

Example – Where is this cartilage found? In the tip of the nose, the ears, the middle of the spinal cord, etc.

What is the study of cartilage?

The study of cartilage is called Chondrology.

What are the bones?

The study of bones is called Osteology. And the formation of bones is called Ossification. This bone is the hardest tissue. Along with this, the cells which are there, in the beginning, are called Osteoblast, which after maturing are called osteocytes.

Talking about the structure of bone, its outer cover is called Periosteum. It also has a matrix and lacuna but only one cell or osteocyte is found in its one lacuna while one to four cells are found in it.

Its matrix contains collagen and calcium ions which together provide firmness. There is no specific flexibility in it. It provides support and protection to the body as well as forms a protective framework for soft organs.

What is fluid connective tissue?

Fluid connective tissue performs the function of circulation in the body. There are two examples of this.

  1. Blood
  2. Lymph
What is blood?

Blood is a red liquid connective tissue. It is red in color because it contains a red pigment called Hemoglobin. If we talk about the amount of blood in the body of a healthy adult human, then it is about 5 to 5.5 liters, and the amount of hemoglobin in it is 12 to 16 grams / 100 ml.

Out of which females have 12 – 14 g / 100 ml and males have 14 – 16 g / 100 ml. The amount of hemoglobin in females is less because they have a menstrual cycle or period every month, in which there is a lot of blood loss.

Components of blood – Two types of components are found inside the blood.

  1. Plasma
  2. Organized substance

Also, read –

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What is plasma?

It is found in 55% of our blood. It is a colorless component of blood and contains 90-92% water, the rest being organic matter and inorganic matter. Inorganic substances contain ions. The organic matter consists of plasma proteins, digested food substances, nitrogenous waste products, clotting factors, and antibodies.

Plasma proteins include albumin, globulin, fibrinogen and prothrombin of which albumin controls blood osmotic pressure and globulin helps in immunity, and fibrinogen acts as a prothrombin clotting factor.

What is organized substance?

It is found in 45% of the blood. It includes red blood cells (RBCs), white blood cells (WBCs), and platelets. RBCs are also called erythrocytes in which erythro means red and cytes means cell.

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Similarly, WBCs (White Blood Cells) are called Leukocytes in which Leuko means white and Cytes means cells. Similarly, platelets are called thrombocytes in which thrombi means clot and cytes means cells.

Red Blood Cells (RBCs) –

Its color is red because the red color pigment is found in it and this red color pigment is called hemoglobin. It is 4.5 – 5.5 million/mm3 in adult and healthy men. But in small children (infants), the quantity of RBCs is 6 -7 million/mm3. That’s why the cheeks of small children look pink.

Talking about the shape of RBCs, when it is immature, it is round and all the organelles are present in it, but when it matures, it becomes biconical and all the organelles inside it are destroyed. So that the maximum amount of hemoglobin can come inside it. Because the primary function of RBCs is to transport gases (O2 & CO2), and the more hemoglobin, the more the exchange of gases.

White Blood Cells (WBCs) –

These are 6000 – 8000/mm³ in the blood. It is of two types.

1- Granulocytes – It is called granular because small particles are found along with the nucleus in its cytoplasm. It is of three types.

Neutrophils – These are phagocytosis. Neutrophils make up 60-65% of the total WBCs.

Basophils – It makes up 0.5-1% of the total WBCs. Three chemicals come out of these, histamine, serotonin, and heparin. These cause allergic reactions and all allergic reactions are due to histamine and serotonin.

Eosinophils – It makes up 2-3% of the total WBCs. These cells are responsible for inflammatory reactions. For example, on pricking a thorn somewhere, the temperature of the skin there increases, swelling occurs, it becomes red, and there is pain.

2- Agranulocytes – Only the center is found in this, particles are not found. It is of two types.

Monocytes – It makes up 6-8% of the total WBCs. These are also phagocytic cells.

Lymphocytes – It makes up 20-25% of the total WBCs. It produces antibodies.

Platelets – Platelets are also called platelets. Its function is blood clotting and it is 1.5 – 3.5 lac/mm³ in normal adult humans. When the number of platelets decreases, coagulation-related diseases occur.

What is Lymph?

It is pale yellow or colorless because RBCs are not found in it. Lymph also contains plasma. Its plasma components are similar to those of blood plasma, with the only difference being that the plasma component of lymph has more glucose and less protein, while the plasma component of blood has less glucose and protein. Quantity is more. Lymphocytes are also found in the lymph. Some WBCs are also found.

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