Course 6 - Connective and supporting tissues

Welcome to part 6, where the topics are connective and supportive tissues. These terms refer to loose connective tissue, dense connective tissue, cartilage, and bone tissue.

What these tissue types have in common is that they all consist of cells and an surrounding material called intercellular substance (= extracellular matrix).

The intercellular substance is in turn made up of fibers and ground substance. The amount, type, and spatial distribution of these components determine the properties of the connective tissue, such as elasticity and strength.

Each type of connective tissue has its characteristic cells that synthesize the components of the intercellular substance. We also find varying amounts of fat cells and cells belonging to the immune system.

In this course, we will take a closer look at each type of connective and supportive tissue, the cells in each, and the different variants of extracellular matrix.