I’ve never liked the phrase “my body is a temple”.

It just kinda feels like it got dipped in a layer of

wellness marketing and served to us on a bed of kale chips by early pre-Instagram fitness
influencers.

But in modern day, I’ve warmed up to it as a teaching metaphor.

Maybe the body isn’t a temple, but it is a house, and houses have different kinds of materials
keeping it together. Nails are used in different situations than screws and angle brackets have
their time and place instead of floating shelves. Likewise, the human body uses multiple tissues
to hold itself together.

This is where connective tissue comes in.

Just like how you can go to the hardware store and get lost in the options for joint fasteners,
there’s a ridiculous diversity of connective tissue in the human body, and each one serves a
purpose.

So in today’s video, you’re going to get an overview of the types of connective tissue in the body
and learn why those types of tissues show up in the anatomy that they do.

[intro card]

If you’re new here, welcome, my name is Patrick and on this channel, we learn anatomy. On the
chance that you’ve already watched my histology basics video, the first minute or two of this
video is going to sound familiar. Obviously I’d recommend watching this one anyway for a
refresher, but if you want to skip to the new information, click this time on screen.

For the rest of you, let’s get into the lesson.

Connective tissue is one of the four types of tissue we have in our bodies. The others: muscle,
nervous, and epithelial all serve unique purposes and have pretty clear cut roles in the body1.
Muscles produce force, nervous tissue transmits signals, and epithelial tissues line organs and
secrete mucus.

Connective tissue is literally everything else.

Ligaments and fascia are some of the obvious types of connective tissue, but so is bone, and
blood and lymph2.

1
Animal tissue divides into four basic groups, which include epithelial tissue, muscle tissue, nervous tissue, and
connective tissue. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK542226/
2
Dense connective tissue is what makes up tendons and ligaments and consist of a higher density of collagen fibers.
Examples of specialized connective tissues are adipose tissue, cartilage, bone, blood, and lymph.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538534/
Yes, we have liquid connective tissue, that is a real thing.

In general, we can split connective tissue into three categories: loose proper, dense proper, or
specialized34. We’re going to build on this flowchart over the course of this video — and if you
want it as a study guide, there’s a copy linked in the doobyldoo below.

As expected, the tissue gets its name depending on what it’s built from. And each proper
connective tissue has some degree of the following three components: ground substance,
structural fibers, and living cells.

Ground substance is a kind of liquidy, intermediary substance for dissolved particles to float
around in56. Stuff like electrolytes or enzymes can float from a capillary through ground
substance to make its way across tissues to a cell7.

The fibers in connective tissue give the tissue some kind of structure and mechanical
properties. Again, think of them like building materials.

You could choose the dense, thick collagen fibers if you want resistance to tensile force8. Or
thin reticular fibers which usually get laid down in a meshwork style, creating more spaces
between fibers9. Then there’s elastin which is stretchier and more pliable10.

3
Connective tissue can further be broken down into three categories: loose connective tissue, dense connective
tissue, and specialized connective tissue. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538534/
4
Based on the cells present and the ECM structure, we differ two types of connective tissue: Connective tissue
proper; further divided into loose and dense connective tissues. Specialised connective tissue; reticular, blood, bone,
cartilage and adipose tissues https://www.kenhub.com/en/library/anatomy/overview-and-types-of-connective-tissue
5
The three components of connective tissue are cells, ground substance and fibers. Ground substance and fibers
make up the extracellular matrix (ECM).
https://www.kenhub.com/en/library/anatomy/overview-and-types-of-connective-tissue
6
Ground substance is a viscous gel made of water, proteoglycans, glycoproteins and glycosaminoglycans. These
make the ground substance viscous and bind high amounts of water which allows hydration, diffusion of nutrients and
nourishing of the tissue. https://www.kenhub.com/en/library/anatomy/overview-and-types-of-connective-tissue
7
The purpose of the ground substance is to allow for the exchange of cellular nutrients between cells and capillaries.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK542226/
8
Collagen fibers are made up of closely packed thin collagen fibrils that run a wavy course in tissues. These parallel
fibrils are bundles with flexible proteoglycans to offer an essential mechanical property. They offer flexible but
powerful resistance to pulling force. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538534/
9
Under microscopy, these reticular fibers are fine, dark fibrils that are continuous with the college fibers described
above. The arrangement of these fibers forms a network that underlies the basal lamina layer. There is a firm
attachment of these fibers to the basal lamina that indicates that, along with the collagen fibers, these fibers create a
functional and structural unit that serves to support tissues. The loose arrangement of these fibers also provides
space for molecular movement within the extracellular fluid.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538534/
10
The last component to discuss is elastin fibers. These fibers have the characteristic property of elastic recoil.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538534/
There’s even variation within those fibers for specific purposes. Our bodies make 28 types of
collagen, again all with different purposes11. Like type 1 collagen is more appropriate for
ligaments while type 2 collagen is more common between our joints12.

And while a long strand of collagen protein isn’t alive, there is a living part of connective tissue
— cells. The most common of which are fibroblasts, cells that live to supply the tissue around it
with those structural fibers, hence fibro-blast13. That’s not all though, there are also wandering
immune cells like the occasional macrophage looking for bad guys14.

So as you could probably infer, loose connective tissue is going to be heavier on the ground
substance, lighter on the fibers while dense connective tissue is the opposite. It has a higher
density of fibers, less ground substance15.

We’ll come back to specialized connective tissue, but for now, let’s address the elephant in the
room. What’s the point of loose connective tissue? I mean, if the point of connective tissue is to
connect, shouldn’t a material with high fiber content and higher tensile strength just be a better
option like always?

Asked an 18 year old me in front of the entire class, proving that I didn’t do the assigned
reading.

Just like in our house metaphor, there’s a time and place to use beefier materials. I want you to
think the same about connective tissue. There’s a time and place for each material.

You’ll use dense connective tissue proper for anatomy that needs to resist a straightforward,
strong tensile force.

Best examples are probably ligaments — the regular dense connective tissue that attach
bone to bone16. They exist to prevent any type of excessive motion in one particular direction.

11
Collagen is the most abundant protein found in the human body and has 28 types
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK542226/
12
Type I: the most common type; flexible, strong, provides resistance to force, tension, and stretch; found in all
connective tissue, notably scar tissue, tendons, ligaments, bone, cornea, skin, and dentin.
Type II: provides resistance to pressure, found in articular and hyaline cartilage of joints and intervertebral discs.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK542226/
13
The primary cell of connective tissue is the fibroblast. Its function is to produce and maintain the ECM of connective
tissue. Besides fibroblasts, several other cell types are present. These are the cells of the immune system
(macrophages, lymphocytes and mast cells) and adipocytes.
https://www.kenhub.com/en/library/anatomy/overview-and-types-of-connective-tissue
14
Commons cells of the connective tissue consisting of fibroblasts, macrophages, adipocytes, leukocytes, and mast
cells https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK542226/
15
Dense connective tissue exists in two formsL dense irregular and dense regular. Dense irregular connective tissue
consists of the same components found in loose connective tissue but exhibits a predominance of collagen fibers and
fewer cells. https://books.google.com/books?id=FFg88IaReBwC&pg=PA24#v=onepage&q&f=false
16
Dense regular connective tissues are rich in collagen fibers and form the tendons and aponeuroses that join
muscles to bone or other muscles and the ligaments that join bone to bone.
https://books.google.com/books?id=FFg88IaReBwC&pg=PA24#v=onepage&q&f=false
Your anterior talofibular ligament keeps you from too much ankle inversion, so a strong bundle
of dense connective tissue ties down your talus to your fibula to try and restrict that motion.

It’s not just the density of fibers that gives ligaments their strength, but also their arrangement.

Its fibers run in parallel directions unlike irregular dense connective tissue, which might not
have the single direction tensile strength, but it’s good at resisting multidirectional force.

That’s what makes it perfect for the capsule around your shoulder17.

The glenohumeral joint needs a large range of motion, so having a bunch of spindly dense
ligaments around it wouldn’t be a great idea — it would look like a big fishing net. But you still
need to keep the ball of the humeral head in the shallow glenoid fossa or socket, so you do
need dense tissue.

Perfect, irregular for the multi directionality, dense for the strength.

This type of connective tissue also makes up 80% of connective tissue in our dermis, the middle
layer of skin18.

This will be a separate video, but the skin as an organ does so many complicated and intricate
tasks. It’s got hair follicles and capillaries and nerves and oil glands all around to do stuff like
thermoregulation and sensation. So to give it a little extra structural integrity, we have irregular
dense connective tissue right in the middle of the dermis.

But you’ll notice that above that is a less dense layer called the papillary layer. And below that in
the hypodermis, adipose tissue, which is still connective tissue.

Again, this is a perfect demonstration of form matching function.

Loose connective tissue is soft and squishy19. It isn’t as strong when pulled apart, but offers
more of a mattress quality. The most dominant kind is areolar tissue, referencing all the space,
the “open air” of loose tissue.

17
This type of tissue can be found in the dermis of the skin (ie reticular layer), the fibrous capsules of many organs,
and the fibrous sheaths of cartilage (ie perichondruym) and bone (ie periosteum).
https://books.google.com/books?id=FFg88IaReBwC&pg=PA24#v=onepage&q&f=false
18
Underlying the papillary layer is the much thicker reticular layer, composed of dense irregular connective tissue
which resists forces in many directions attributing to the flexibility of the skin.
https://open.oregonstate.education/aandp/chapter/5-1-layers-of-the-skin/
19
Loose connective tissue, also known as areolar tissue, is soft and pliable.
https://books.google.com/books?id=FFg88IaReBwC&pg=PA24#v=onepage&q&f=false
Our bodies use this tissue in the papillary layer of the skin for exactly that reason20. We can fiil
all kinds of stuff in that layer21.

That’s what makes loose connective tissue so unique is that this shift towards more ground
substance and less structural fiber allows more dissolved stuff or immune cells like
macrophages and mast cells.

Just like areolar tissue, reticular tissue is open and airy, but instead of collagen fibers, reticular
tissue just has... reticular fibers.

I know, anatomists are terrible at naming things. To make things worse, that layer of dense
irregular tissue in the dermis is called the reticular layer….despite not being reticular tissue22.

Finally, that adipose tissue in the hypodermis is [shakily] loose connective tissue. I know it
doesn’t seem like it’s connecting anything to anything, but when you imagine loose connective
tissue as more of support than connection, it becomes more clear.

I hesitate to call adipose tissue loose connective tissue because during my fact check for this
script I found sources saying that fat was loose connective tissue, while some said it’s firmly a
specialized connective tissue — in the same category as blood, lymph, cartilage, and bone23,
our final category in the flowchart.

All of these tissue types technically count as connective tissue. And like, cartilage, which you’d
think should be dense connective tissue, is actually specialized.

That’s a good place to start though. What’s so special about it?

Allow me to introduce you to chondrocytes, cells that are unique to cartilage. Like the
fibroblasts in other connective tissue, chondrocytes make extracellular matrix, but they make it
differently.

And when we’re looking at these specialized connective tissues, it’s those unique cells like
chondrocytes that make them special.

20
The papillary layer is made of loose, areolar connective tissue, which means the collagen and elastin fibers of this
layer form a loose mesh with abundant ground substance supporting the hydration of the skin.
https://open.oregonstate.education/aandp/chapter/5-1-layers-of-the-skin/
21
Within the papillary layer are fibroblasts, a small number of fat cells (adipocytes), and an abundance of small blood
vessels. In addition, the papillary layer contains phagocytes, defensive cells that help fight bacteria or other infections
that have breached the skin. This layer also contains lymphatic capillaries, nerve fibers, and touch receptors called
the Meissner corpuscles. https://open.oregonstate.education/aandp/chapter/5-1-layers-of-the-skin/
22
Underlying the papillary layer is the much thicker reticular layer, composed of dense irregular connective tissue
which resists forces in many directions attributing to the flexibility of the skin
https://open.oregonstate.education/aandp/chapter/5-1-layers-of-the-skin/
23
Specialized connective tissues consist of blood, adipose tissue, cartilage, and bone.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20412832/
Like our bones are mostly collagen that’ve been hardened with calcium2425 — the structure of
bone really isn’t that special — it’s still the same stuff as in other connective tissue. But
osteocytes, or mature bone cells, /are/ unique to bone26. Erythrocytes, or red blood cells (or red
blood corpuscles if you want to be that guy), are unique to blood, and so on.

But all of those cells started from the same layer as an embryo, and get replenished from the
same stem cells as an adult27. So really, these seemingly unrelated tissues have a lot more in
common than we first thought.

One thing I find fascinating is how blood, a connective tissue, is made inside of bones, another
connective tissue. I have a video that you can check out right here if you’re interested in the
physiology of bone — not memorizing a skeleton, but some good physiology. Otherwise, check
out these playlists to keep on learning. Have fun, be good. Thanks for watching.

https://books.google.com/books?id=FFg88IaReBwC&pg=PA24#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://stock.adobe.com/images/genetic-disorder-connective-tissue/292346123
Time track

Date Time Task

7/21/20 2hr 42min Writing first draft

7/22/20 2hr 30min Editing, FC draft

24
Bone is composed of various types of cells and collagenous extracellular organic matrix, which is predominantly
type I collagen (85–95%) called osteoid that becomes mineralised by the deposition of calcium hydroxyapatite
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3341892/
25
Made mostly of collagen, bone is living, growing tissue. Collagen is a protein that provides a soft framework, and
calcium phosphate is a mineral that adds strength and hardens the framework. This combination of collagen and
calcium makes bone strong and flexible enough to withstand stress.
https://www.bones.nih.gov/health-info/bone/bone-health/what-is-bone
26
Osteocytes are the longest living bone cell, making up 90–95% of cells in bone tissue in contrast to osteoclasts and
osteoblasts making up ~5% https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2019.00285/full
27
It has been generally believed that all cellular elements of connective tissue, including fibroblasts, adipocytes,
chondrocytes, and bone cells, are generated solely by mesenchymal stem cells. Recently, a number of studies,
including those from our laboratory based on transplantation of single hematopoietic stem cells, strongly suggested a
hematopoietic stem cell origin of these adult mesenchymal tissues. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20412832/