BODY TISSUES

 Groups of cells that are similar in structure and function are called tissues and
there are four primary tissue types:
i) epithelium
ii) connective tissue
iii) nervous tissue
iv) muscle
 Tissues are organized into organs such as the heart, kidneys, and lungs.
 Most organs contain several tissue types and the arrangement of the tissues
determines each organ’s structure and what it is able to do.

Epithelial Tissue
 Epithelial tissue is the lining, covering and glandular tissue of the body and
glandular epithelium forms various glands in the body.
 Covering and lining epithelium covers all free body surfaces and contains
versatile cells.
 Epithelial functions include protection, absorption, filtration, and secretion. For
example, epithelium of the skin protects against bacterial and chemical damage
and that lining the respiratory tract has cilia which sweep dust and other debris
away from the lungs.
 Epithelium specialized to absorb substances lines some digestive system.
 In kidneys, epithelium both absorbs and filters.
 Secretion is a specialty of the glands which produce perspiration, oil, digestive
enzymes and mucus.

Special Characteristics of Epithelium

 Characteristics:
- Epithelial cells fit closely together to form continuous sheets except for
glandular epithelium. Neighboring cells are bound together by cell junctions,
including desmosomes and tight junctions.
- The membranes always have one free surface or edge called apical surface
where ir is exposed to the body’s exterior or to the cavity of an internal organ.
Some are slick and smooth, some have microvilli or cilia.
- Lower surface of an epithelium rests on a basement membrane, a structureless
material secreted by the cells.
- They have no blood supply of its own and depend on diffusion from the
capillaries for food and oxygen.
- If well nourished, epithelia cells regenerate themselves easily.
Classification of Epithelium
 The classifications by cell arrangement (layers) are simple epithelium (one layer
of cells) and stratified epithelium (more than one cell layer).

Simple epithelia
 Simple epithelia are most concerned with absorption, secretion, and filtration and
usually very thin, protection is not one of their specialties.

Simple Squamous Epithelium

 Simple squamous epithelium is a single layer of thin squamous cells resting on a
basement membrane and forms membranes where filtration or exchange of
substances by rapid diffusion occurs.
 It is found in the air sacs of the lungs and it forms the walls of capillaries.
 It also forms serous membranes or serosae, the slick membranes that line the
ventral body cavity and cover the organs in that cavity.

Simple Cuboidal Epithelium

 Simple cuboidal epithelium is one layer of cuioidal cells resting on a basement of
membrane, common in glands and ducts (the salivary glands and pancreas) and
forms the walls of the kidney tubules and covers the surface of the ovaries.

Simple Columnar Epithelium

 Simple columnar epithelium is made up of a single layer of tall cells that fit
closely together and goblet cells produce a lubricationg mucus
 Simple columnar epithelium lines the entire length of the digestive tract from the
stomach to the anus.
 Epithelium membranes that line body cavities open to the body exterior are called
mucosae or mucous membranes.

Pseudostratified Columnar Epithelium

 Pseudostratified columnar epithelium rest on a basement membrane and its cells
are shorter than others and their nuclei appear at different heights above the
basement membrane.
 This epithelium gives the false (pseudo) impression that it is stratified and
functions in absorption and secretion.
  A ciliated variety called pseudostratified ciliated columnar lines most of the
respiratory tract.

Stratified Epithelia
 Stratified epithelia consist of two or more cell layers and more durable than the
simple epithelia which functions primarily to protect.

Stratified Squamous Epithelium

 Stratified squamous epithelium is the most common stratified epithelium in the
body and consists of several layers of cells.
 The cells at the free edge are squamous cells, whereas those close to the basement
membrane are cuboidal or columnar and found in sites that receive a good deal of
abuse or friction, such as esophagus, mouth and outer portion of the skin.

Stratified Cuboidal and Stratified Columnar Epithelia

 Stratified cuboidal epithelium has just two cell layers with the surface cells being
cuboidal.
 The surface cells of stratified columnar epithelium are columnar cells, but its
basal cells vary in size and shape.
 Bothe of these epithelia are fairly rare in the body, found mainly in the ducts or
large glands.

Transitional Epithelium
 Transitional epithelium is highly modified, stratified squamous epithelium forms
the lining of only a few organs (urinary bladder, ureters and part of the urethra)
and all these organs are subject to considerable stretching.
 Basal layer are cuboidal or columnar; those at the free surface vary in
appearance.
 When the organ is not stretched, the membrane is many-layered and the
superficial cells are rounded and domelike.
 When the epithelium thins, the surface cells flatten and become squamous-like.

Glandular Epithelium
 A gland consists of one or more cells that produces secretion, typically contains
protein molecules in an aqueous fluid.
 Two major types of glands develop from epithelial sheets.
 Endocrine glands lose their connection to the surface (duct); thus they call
ductless glands.
  Their secretions diffuse directly into the blood vessels that weave through the
glands; for examples are thyroid, adrenals and pituitary.
 Exocrine glands retain their ducts and their secretions empty through the ducts to
the epithelial surface include sweat and oil glands, liver and pancreas.

Connective Tissue
 Connective tissue connects body parts and found everywhere in the body.
 It is the most abundant tissue types and performs many functions primarily
involved in protection, supporting and binding together other body tissues.

Common Characteristics of Connective Tissue

 Characteristics:
- Variations in blood supply where most connective tissues are vascularized
(have a good blood supply), but there are exceptions. Tendons and
ligaments have a poor blood supply and cartilages are avascular. These
structures heal very slowly when injured.
- Extracellular matrix where connective tissues are made up of many
different types of cells plus varying amount of a nonliving substance
found outside the cells called the extracellular matrix.

Extracellular Matrix
 The matrix is produced by the connective tissue cells and secreted to their
exterior, has two main elements, a structureless found substance and fibers.
 The ground substance composed largely of water plus some adhesion proteins and
large, charged polysaccharide molecules.
 The cell adhesion proteins allows the connective tissue cells to attach themselves
to the matrix fibers embedded in the ground substance.
 The charged polysaccharide molecules trap water as they intertwine.
 As the relative cause the matric to vary from fluid to gel-like to firm to rock-hard
in its consistency.
 Ground substance able to absorb large amounts of water allows serving as a water
reservoir for the body.
 Collagen distinguished by their high tensile strength, elastic (yellow) fibers
characteristic of which is an ability to be stretched and reticular fibers depending
on the connective tissue type.
  Monomers of these fibers are made by the connective tissue cells and secreted
into the ground substance in the extracellular space, join together to form the
various fiber types.
 Because of its extracellular matrix, connective tissue forms a soft packing tissue
around other organs, to bear weight and to withstand stretching and other abuses.

Types of Connective Tissue

 The major connective tissue classes are bone, cartilage, dense connective tissue,
loose connective tissue, and blood.

Bone
 Bone sometimes called osseous tissue, composed of bone cells sitting in cavities
called lacunae and surrounded by layers of a very hard matrix that contains
calcium salts in addition to large numbers of collagen fibers.
 It has rocklike hardness, so able to protect and support other body organs.

Cartilage
 Cartilage is less hard and more flexible than bone.
 It is found in only a few places in the body and most widespread is hyaline
cartilage, which has abundant collagen fibers.
 It forms the supporting structures of the larynx, attaches the ribs to the breastbone,
and covers the ends of bones where they form joints.
 The skeleton of a fetus is made largely of hyaline cartilage, but by the time the
baby is born, most of that cartilage has been replaced by bone.
 Highly compressible fibrocartilage forms the cushionlike disks between the
vertebrae of spinal column.
 Elastic cartilage is found where a structure with elasticity is desired and it
supports the external ear.

Dense Connective Tissue

 Dense connective tissue also called dense fibrous tissue, which has collagen fibers
as its main matrix element.
 Crowded between the collagen fibers are rows of fibroblasts that manufacture the
building blocks of the fibers, forms tendons and ligaments.
 Tendons attach skeletal muscles to bones while ligaments connect bones to bones
at joints.
 Ligaments are more stretchy and contain more elastic fibers than tendons.
 Dense connective tissue also makes up the lower layers of the skin (dermis).
Loose Connective Tissue
 Loose connective tissues are softer and have more cells and fewer fibers than any
other connective tissue type except blood.

Areolar Tissue
 Most widely distributed connective tissue variety in the body, is a soft, pliable
that cushions and protects the body organs.
 It helps to hold the internal organs together and in their proper positions.
 A soft layer of areolar connective tissue called the lamina propria underlines all
mucous membranes and its fluid matrix contains all types of fibers, which form a
loose network.
 Under a microscope, most of the matrix appears to be empty space.
 Areolar connective tissue provides a reservoir of water and salts for the
surrounding tissues and essentially all body cells obtain their nutrients from and
release their wastes into this “tissue fluid”.
 When a body region is inflamed, the areolar tissue soaks up the excess fluid like a
sponge and the area swells and become puffy, a condition called edema.

Adipose Tissue
 Adipose tissue is commonly called fat and it is an areolar tissue.
 A glistening droplet of stored oil occupies most of a fat cell’s volume and
compresses the nucleus, displacing it to one side.
 Cytoplasm looks like a ring with a seal sometimes called signet ring cells.
 Adipose tissue forms the subcutaneous tissue beneath the skin where it insulates
the body and protects it from extremes of both heat and cold.
 Besides, it also protects some organ individually such as kidneys, where fat is
stored and available for fuel if needed.

Reticular Connective Tissue

 Reticular connective tissue consists of a delicate network of interwoven reticular
fibers associated with reticular cells.
 It forms the stroma or internal framework which can support many free blood
cells (largely lymphocytes) in lymphoid organs.

Blood
 Vascular tissue is a connective tissue because it consists of blood cells,
surrounded by a nonliving, fluid matrix called blood plasma.
  The “fibers” of blood are soluble protein molecules that become visible only
during blood clotting.
 Blood is the transport vehicle for the cardiovascular system, carrying nutrients,
wastes, respiratory gases and many other substances throughout the body.

MUSCLE TISSUE
 Muscle tissues are highly specialized to contract or shorten to produce movement.

Skeletal Muscle
 Skeletal muscle tissue is packaged by connective tissue sheets into organs called
skeletal muscles, which are attached to the skeleton and controlled voluntarily,
form the flesh of the body so-called muscular system.
 When the skeletal muscles contract, they pull on bones or skin and the result of
their action is a gross body movement or changes in our facial expressions.
 The cells of skeletal muscle are long, cylindrical, multinucleate and obvious
striations.
 Skeletal muscle cells are elongated to provide a long axis for contraction, they are
often called muscle fibers.

Cardiac Muscle
 Cardiac muscle is found only in heart.
 As it contracts, the heart acts as a pump and propels blood through the blood
vessels.
 It has striations, uninucleate, relatively short, branching cells that fit tightly
together at junctions called intercalated disks.
 The intercalated disks contain gap junctions that allow ions to pass freely from
cell to cell, resulting in rapid conduction of the exiting electrical impulse across
the heart and cardiac muscle is under involuntary control.

Smooth Muscle
 Smooth or visceral muscle has no striations are visible and has a single nucleus,
spindle-shaped.
 It is found in the walls of hollow organs such as stomach, bladder, uterus and
blood vessels.
 As smooth muscle contracts, the cavity becomes smaller or enlarges so that
substances are propelled through the organ along a specific pathway.
 Peristalsis, a wavelike motion that keeps food moving through the small intestine.
Nervous Tissue
 All neurons receive and conduct electrochemical impulses from one part of the
body to another; thus irritability and conductivity are their two major functional
characteristics.
 The structure of neurons is unique and their cytoplasm is drawn out into long
processes.
 Neurons, along with a special group of supporting cells that insulate, support, and
protect the delicate neurons, make up the structures of the nervous system.

Tissue Repair
 The body has many techniques for protecting itself from uninvited guests or
injury.
 When tissue injury does occur, it stimulates the body’s inflammatory and immune
response and the healing process begins almost immediately.
 Inflammation is a generalized (nonspecific) body response that attempts to
prevent further injury and the immune response is extremely specific and mounts
a vigorous attack against recognized invaders (bacteria, viruses, toxins).
 Tissue repair occurs in two major ways:
i) by regeneration
ii) by fibrosis
 Regeneration is the replacement of destroyed tissue by the same kind of cells
whereas fibrosis involves repair by dense (fibrous) connective tissue.
 The capillaries become very permeable and this allows fluid rich in clotting
proteins and other substances to seep into the injured area from the bloodstream.
 Then leaked clotting proteins construct a clot, which stops the loss of blood, holds
the edges of the wound together and walls off the injured area, preventing bacteria
or other harmful substances from spreading to surrounding tissues.
 Where the clot is exposed to air, it quickly dries and hardens, forming a scab.
 Granulation tissue is a delicate pink tissue composed largely of new capillaries
that grow into the damaged area from undamaged blood vessels nearby.
 These capillaries are fragile and bleed freely, as when a scab is picked away from
skin wound.
 This tissue also contains phagocytes that dispose of the blood clot and fibroblasts
that synthesize the building blocks of collagen fibers (scar tissue) to permanently
bridge the gap.
 As the surface epithelium begins to regenerate, it makes its way across the
granulation tissue just beneath the scab.
  The scab soon detaches and a fully regenerated surface epithelium that covers an
underlying area of fibrosis (the scar) is formed either invisible or visible as a thin
white line.
 Epithelial tissues such as the skin epidermis and mucous membranes regenerate
beautifully, fibrous connective tissues and bone too.
 Skeletal muscle regenerates poorly; cardiac muscle and nervous tissue within the
brain and spinal cord are replaced largely by scar tissue.

DEVELOPMENTAL ASPECTS OF CELLS AND TISSUES

 Human begin life as a single cell, which divides thousands of times to form
multicellular embryonic body.
 Very early in embryonic development, the cells begin to specialize to form the
primary tissues and by birth, most organs are well formed and functioning.
 The body continues to grow and enlarge by forming new tissue throughout
childhood and adolescence.
 Cell division is extremely important and most cells undergo mitosis until the end
of puberty.
 After this time, only certain cells routinely divide, for example, cells exposed to
abrasion that continually wear away, such as skin and intestinal cells.
 Liver cells stop dividing; heart muscle and nervous tissue completely lose their
ability to divide when they are fully mature; they become amitotic.
 Amitotic tissues are severely handicapped by injury because the lost cells cannot
be replaced by the same type of cells.
 The aging process begins once maturity has been reached.
 Some believe it is a result of little “chemical insults”, which occur continually
through life, while others think that external physical factors such as radiation
contribute to the aging process.
 Several believe that the aging “clock” is genetically programmed, or built into our
genes.
 With age, epithelial membranes thin and are more easily damaged and the skin
loses its elasticity and begins to sag.
 The exocrine glands of the body become less active, less oil, mucus and sweat are
produced while come endocrine glands produce decreasing amount of hormones
and the body processes that they control become less efficient or stop altogether.
 Bones become porous and weaken and repair of tissue injuries slows while
muscles begin to atrophy.
 Modifications of cells and tissues may occur at any time, for example, when cells
fail to honor normal controls on cell division and multiply wildly, an abnormal
mass of proliferating cells, known as a neoplasm.
 Certain body tissues (or organs) may enlarge because there is some local irritant
or condition that stimulates the cells called hyperplasia.
 On the other hand, atrophy or decrease in size can occur in an organ or body area
that loses its normal stimulation.