00:01
This lecture is about connective tissue and
general connective tissue. So I am going to
cover the basic features of connective tissue.
Later on we will talk about more specialised
connective tissue such as cartilage and bone.
Connective tissue is widespread throughout the body.
00:21
It is everywhere except inside the
brain and the spinal cord. What we need to
learn during this lecture is the connective
tissue consists of cells, fibres and matrix.
00:38
And depending on which one of those three
components dominates, dictates the type of
connective tissue. So you need to understand
the sorts of cells that make up connective
tissue, the sorts of fibres in connective
tissue and also the nature of the matrix because
that will help you learn how connective tissues
become very specialized in very different
parts of the body. There are different fibres
in connective tissue and I will go through
these fibres and it is important that you
understand when these fibres are needed, what
their structural specifications are and therefore
what role they have in various connective
tissues. There are also lots of cells in connective
tissue. Some of these cells are resident cells.
01:32
They live in the connective tissue. Other cells
wander in from the blood. So in this lecture,
I will concentrate on those that are resident
in the connective tissue and in the later
lecture, we will talk about the cells that
wander in from blood and we will talk about
what functions they have there.
01:53
Now as I've mentioned in the start, connective tissue
is everywhere. If you want to travel anywhere
in the body, go along connective tissue channels.
And that is exactly what pathogens do, bacteria
and all those sorts of pathogens that can
cause damage to parts of the body.
02:13
It is where the immune response occurs in the
body. It is where the war against invading
pathogens occurs. So later on when we talk
about the immune system, we will understand
that in connective tissue that is the place
where we have the inflammatory responses and
the immune responses. Connective tissues support
the body. Bone and cartilage are typical examples.
02:43
And it is also the area or the region where
the transfer of information, nutrients and
oxygen occurs between blood vessels and the
working cells in all parts of the body.