In cellular biology, reticular connective tissue is a type of

connective tissue Connective tissue is one of the four primary types of animal tissue, a group of cells that are similar in structure, along with epithelial tissue, muscle tissue, and nervous tissue. It develops mostly from the mesenchyme, derived from the mesod ...

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 tissue type are they dominant. Reticular fibers are synthesized by special

fibroblast A fibroblast is a type of cell (biology), biological cell typically with a spindle shape that synthesizes the extracellular matrix and collagen, produces the structural framework (Stroma (tissue), stroma) for animal Tissue (biology), tissues, and ...

s 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's 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 stromal cells, red bone marrow, and

spleen The spleen (, from Ancient Greek '' σπλήν'', splḗn) is an organ (biology), organ found in almost all vertebrates. Similar in structure to a large lymph node, it acts primarily as a blood filter. The spleen plays important roles in reg ...

Adipose tissue Adipose tissue (also known as body fat or simply fat) is a loose connective tissue composed mostly of adipocytes. It also contains the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) of cells including preadipocytes, fibroblasts, Blood vessel, vascular endothel ...

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 that studies the microscopic anatomy of biological tissue (biology), tissues. Histology is the microscopic counterpart to gross anatomy, which looks at large ...

by staining with a heavy metal like

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

or the PAS stain that stains

carbohydrate A carbohydrate () is a biomolecule composed of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O) atoms. The typical hydrogen-to-oxygen atomic ratio is 2:1, analogous to that of water, and is represented by the empirical formula (where ''m'' and ''n'' ...

s. 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