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 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 (

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 inclu ...

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 ce ...

, and spleen). Adipose tissue is held together by reticular fibers.

Staining

They can be identified in histology by staining with a heavy metal like silver or the PAS stain 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 may ...

. 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