Reticular connective tissue is a type of

connective tissue Connective tissue is one of the four primary types of animal tissue, along with epithelial tissue, muscle tissue, and nervous tissue. It develops from the mesenchyme derived from the mesoderm the middle embryonic germ layer. Connective tiss ...

with a network of reticular fibers, made of type III collagen ('' reticulum'' = net or network). Reticular fibers are not unique to reticular connective tissue, but only in this type they are dominant. Reticular fibers are synthesized by special

fibroblasts A fibroblast is a type of biological cell that synthesizes the extracellular matrix and collagen, produces the structural framework ( stroma) for animal tissues, and plays a critical role in wound healing. Fibroblasts are the most common cells ...

called reticular cells. The fibers are thin branching structures.

Location

Reticular connective tissue is found around the kidney, liver, the spleen, and lymph nodes, Peyer' patches as well as in bone marrow.Martini, Frederic H. Fundamentals of Anatomy and Physiology. Seventh Edition. Pearson Benjamin Cummings. United States. 2006.

Function

The fibers form a soft skeleton ( stroma) to support the

lymphoid organs The lymphatic system, or lymphoid system, is an organ system in vertebrates that is part of the immune system, and complementary to the circulatory system. It consists of a large network of lymphatic vessels, lymph nodes, lymphatic or lymphoid ...

(

lymph node A lymph node, or lymph gland, is a kidney-shaped organ of the lymphatic system and the adaptive immune system. A large number of lymph nodes are linked throughout the body by the lymphatic vessels. They are major sites of lymphocytes that includ ...

stromal cells Stromal cells, or mesenchymal stromal cells, are differentiating cells found in abundance within bone marrow but can also be seen all around the body. Stromal cells can become connective tissue cells of any organ, for example in the uterine mucos ...

red bone marrow Bone marrow is a semi-solid tissue found within the spongy (also known as cancellous) portions of bones. In birds and mammals, bone marrow is the primary site of new blood cell production (or haematopoiesis). It is composed of hematopoietic c ...

, and

spleen The spleen is an organ found in almost all vertebrates. Similar in structure to a large lymph node, it acts primarily as a blood filter. The word spleen comes .

Adipose tissue Adipose tissue, body fat, or simply fat is a loose connective tissue composed mostly of adipocytes. In addition to adipocytes, adipose tissue contains the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) of cells including preadipocytes, fibroblasts, vascular ...

is held together by reticular fibers.

Staining

They can be identified in

histology Histology, also known as microscopic anatomy or microanatomy, is the branch of biology which studies the microscopic anatomy of biological tissues. Histology is the microscopic counterpart to gross anatomy, which looks at larger structures v ...

by staining with a heavy metal like

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

or the

PAS stain PAS or Pas may refer to: Companies and organizations * Pakistan Academy of Sciences * Pakistan Administrative Service * Pan Am Southern, a freight railroad owned by Norfolk Southern and Pan Am Railways * Pan American Silver, a mining company in ...

that stains

carbohydrates In organic chemistry, a carbohydrate () is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water) and thus with the empirical formula (where ''m'' may or m ...

. Gordon and Gold can also be used.

Appearance

Reticular connective tissue resembles areolar connective tissue, but the only fibers in its matrix are reticular fibers, which form a delicate network along which fibroblasts called reticular cells lie scattered. Although reticular fibers are widely distributed in the body, reticular tissue is limited to certain sites. It forms a labyrinth-like stroma (literally, "bed or "mattress"), or internal framework, that can support many free blood cells (largely lymphocytes) in lymph nodes, the spleen, and red bone marrow.

Classification

There are more than 20 types of reticular fibers. In Reticular Connective Tissue type III collagen/reticular fiber (100-150 nm in diameter) is the major fiber component. It forms the architectural framework of liver, adipose tissue, bone marrow, spleen and basement membrane, to name a few.

References

Notes

External links

* - "Connective tissue, reticular (LM, Medium)"
Histology at uwa.edu.au
{{Connective tissue, state=collapsed Connective tissue de:Bindegewebe#Retikuläres Bindegewebe