#4 Tissues, Part3 - Connective Tissues

Marfan Syndrome is a genetic disorder of the connective tissue.

People suffering from it have a defect in their connective tissue that substantially weakens it over time.

The fact that a single genetic mutation can affect your bones, cartilage, tendons, blood vessel walls, and more, shows that all of those structures are closely related, no matter how different they may seem.

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<What is Connective Tissue?>

Connective tissue is pretty much everywhere in your body, although how much of it shows up where, varies from organ to organ.

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<Four Classes of Connective Tissue>

Fat:
A type of proper connective tissue which provides insulation and fuel storage.

Your bones, tendons, and cartilage bind, support, and protect your organs and give you a skeleton so you can move with purpose.

Your blood transports your hormones, nutrients, and other material all over your body.

There's no other substance in you that can boast this kind of diversity.

All connective tissues have three factors in common that set them apart from other tissue types.

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<The Extracellular Matrix>

First, they share a common origin: They all develop from mesenchyme, a loose and fluid type of embryonic tissue.

Connective tissues also have different degrees of vascularity, or blood flow.

Finally, all connective tissues are mostly composed of nonliving material.

The actual cells are just intermittent little goodies floating around inside the matrix - like the little marshmallows.

The ground substance is flexible, because it's mostly made of big ol' starch and protein molecules mixed with water.

The anchors of this framework are proteins called proteoglycans.

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<Types of Fibers>

Collagen is by far the strongest and most abudant type of fiber. Tough and flexible, it's essentially a strand of protein, and stress tests show that it's actually stronger than a steel fiber of the same size.

It's part of what makes your skin look young and plump, which is why sometimes we inject it into our faces.

Elastic Fibers are longer and thinner, and form a branching framework within the matrix.

They're made out of the protein elastin which allows them to strech and reciol like rubber bands; they're found in places like your skin, lungs, and blood vessel walls.

There are reticular fibers - short, finer collagen fibers with an extra coating of glycoprotein.

These fibers from delicate, sponge-like networks that cradle and support your organs like fuzzy nets.

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<Coonective Tissue Cells>

You can recognize the immature cells by the suffix they all share in their names: blast.

To secrete the ground substances and fiber that form its unique matrix.

So, the matrices that these cells create are pretty much what build you - they assemble your bone and your cartilage and your tendons and everything that holds the rest together.

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<How Marfan Syndrome Affects Connective Tissue>

It targets the elastic fibers, causing weakness in the matrix that's the root of many of the conditions most serious symptoms.

When the elastic fibers around the aorta weaken, they can't provide the artery with enough support.