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Lateral Views of the Brain

In today’s tutorial, we’re going to go way back to the 1930s and meet this guy, Dr. Wilder Graves
Penfield, a neurosurgeon, once hailed as the greatest living Canadian. Penfield is most well-known for
his techniques for treatment of epilepsy as well as his role in the functional mapping of the brain.
Penfield was aware that in many cases of epilepsy, seizures originated from a scarred or damaged
region of brain tissue and also that it was quite common to patients suffering with epilepsy to get what’s
known as an aura – a sensation such as a smell, taste or thought before the onset of a seizure.

For example, one of Penfield’s patient was famously described as smelling burnt toast before her
seizures would come on. So, Penfield helps develop what you could call a somewhat out-of-the-box
technique known as the Montreal Procedure, in which he would remove a portion of a patient’s skull
while they were awake. He’d then zap different areas of the patient’s brain with a small electrode,
taking note of what the patient experienced each time. And he would keep proving until eventually he
would find the area of the brain producing the aura, thus identifying the troublesome brain tissue
causing the seizures and removing it in hopes of reducing the risk of future seizures. Science fiction,
this is not.

So, over his career and after probing many, many brains, Penfield learned much about the functions of
different regions of the cerebral cortex and eventually developed a functional map of brain function. So,
in today’s tutorial, we’re going to relieve Penfield’s exploration of the brain and, unfortunately, we
couldn’t find anyone who was willing to let me saw open their brain. So, we’re going to take a more
somewhat conservative approach and stick with this illustration of the brain to be our guide instead.

So, stick with me now as we explore a lateral view of the brain.

So, to begin, let’s get a lay of the land of what we’re looking at, remembering first that this is the
anterior, posterior, superior, and inferior aspects of the brain. And looking at the general anatomy first,
let’s begin with the structure here which is the cerebellum.

And the cerebellum is mainly responsible for functions such as the coordination of muscle activity and
movement, and helping us to stand upright and to maintain posture. Anterior to that is the brainstem,
which mainly functions to relay information to and from the higher regions of the brain and the rest of
your body. And the brainstem, of course, can be divided into three parts, which are the midbrain, the
pons, and the medulla oblongata, and you can see in our illustration that these are largely covered by
the cerebrum which is the center for higher processing in our brain. And it is specifically the surface
anatomy of the cerebrum that we’ll be focusing on today.

So, in this coronal section of the brain, we can see that the cerebrum is divided into two cerebral
hemispheres – a left and a right one – which are separated by the medial longitudinal fissure. Each
hemisphere has three surfaces – the superolateral surface, the medial surface, and the inferior
surface. When looking from a lateral perspective, we are therefore specifically looking at the
superolateral surface of the brain.

Now, would you believe me if I said that when we look at the surface of the brain, we’re really only able
to see approximately one-third of the actual surface area of the cerebral cortex? This is due to the
presence of these elevations or folds, which are known as gyri, and depressions or grooves, which are
known as sulci. Of course, there’s a reason for this folding. It’s actually to allow more surface area to
accommodate the millions and millions of neurons and synapses which are needed to facilitate higher
processing. If our brains didn’t have these sulci and gyri, it would be around the same size as a
basketball which, unless you’re going for the crazed-villain look, is neither becoming nor very practical.

The sulci of the cerebral cortex simply serve to define each gyrus from the next while some larger
grooves known as fissures define and demarcate the cerebral cortex into subdivisions, which are
known as lobes. And these are the frontal lobe, the parietal lobe, the temporal lobe, the occipital lobe,
and the insular lobe or insula for short which is hidden in here, but more on that in just a short while.

The superficial four lobes are named according to their overlying cranial bone. For example, the frontal
lobe lies deep to the frontal bone, the occipital lobe lies deep to the occipital bone, and so on. And
when looking at the cerebral cortex from a lateral perspective as we’re doing right now, we can identify
three somewhat pointed ends, which are known as poles. And these include the frontal pole located at
the anterior tip of the frontal lobe, the occipital pole located at the posterior tip of the occipital lobe, and
finally, we have the temporal pole, which is located at the anteroinferior tip of the temporal lobe.

So, let’s take a closer look at the major gyri and sulci of each lobe right now beginning anteriorly with
the frontal lobe. And the frontal lobe is responsible for controlling a diverse range of functions such as
muscle movements or muscle control as well as cognitive functions such as planning, concentration,
language as well as rationale and executive control – meaning that it helps prevent us doing dumb or
stupid things when we’re angry or upset that we’ll later regret. Interestingly enough, the frontal lobe
doesn’t fully finish developing until after adolescence which in itself says a lot about adolescence.

The frontal lobe is limited posteriorly by a fissure called the central sulcus, or the fissure of Rolando,
which runs anterolaterally towards a second fissure called the lateral sulcus, or the fissure of Sylvius,
which defines the inferior border of this lobe.

Let’s take a look now at some of the subdivisions of the frontal lobe. So, highlighted in green now is a
sulcus called the precentral sulcus which runs parallel and a little bit anterior to the central sulcus, or
the central fissure, and the area between it and the central sulcus is the precentral gyrus. The
precentral gyrus is home to the primary motor cortex which, true to its name, controls motor function.

So, our friend, Penfield, also discovered that motor function is topologically arranged, meaning that
each part of the body is represented in a specific area of this cortex as you can see in this illustration.
In the region anterior to the precentral gyrus, there are two sulci that run in an anteroposterior direction,
and these are the superior and inferior sulci, and these sulci divide this region into three gyri – the
superior frontal gyrus which is associated with laughter, working memory and self-awareness; the
middle frontal gyrus, and the inferior frontal gyrus.

The inferior frontal gyrus is further divided by two somewhat vertical sulci which are the anterior ramus
of the lateral cerebral sulcus and the ascending ramus of the lateral cerebral sulcus. And this divides
the inferior frontal gyrus into three parts – the pars orbitalis or the orbital part, the pars triangularis or
the triangular part, and the pars opercularis or opercular part.

And yes, I know, there’s a whole lot of terminology going on here, but really if you can just remember
this major landmarks, then you’re doing really well with the anatomy of the frontal lobe.

I want you to pay particular attention to this pars triangularis for a moment, though, because it’s around
this area, usually in the left hemisphere that we’ll find Brodmann area 44 and 45, which is more
commonly known as Broca’s area. And this is the area which is responsible for speech production and
articulation. We will find out more about this area a little bit later in this tutorial, so stay tuned.

We’re going to continue on to our next cerebral lobe of interest though right now, and this which is the
temporal lobe.

So, the temporal lobe which is defined as this area just here highlighted in green which is largely
inferior to the lateral sulcus. It has two major sulci of note which are the superior temporal sulcus seen
here and the inferior temporal sulcus running roughly parallel beneath it. And these two sulci divides
the temporal lobe into three primary gyri which are the superior temporal gyrus, the middle temporal
gyrus, and the inferior temporal gyrus.

One particular region of interest which we must mention is this one here located at the posterior end of
the superior temporal gyrus, and this is Wernicke’s area or Brodmann area 22. And this is the control
center of your brain for language development and comprehension of speech. Most often, Wernicke’s
area is generally only found on the left-hand side of the brain, however, that’s not always the case.

Alright, it’s time for our next cerebral lobe now, and this time, we’re going to be talking about the
parietal lobe.

So the parietal lobe is primarily responsible for the processing of the sensations of touch, pain and
pressure, which are also known as somatosensory sensations. So, if you somehow managed to drive
a nail through your finger one day, it will be your parietal lobe telling you all about it.

Looking at the anatomy of the parietal lobe, we can see that it is limited anteriorly by the central sulcus
and posteriorly by this sulcus here known as the parietooccipital sulcus, which is more visible on the
medial aspect of the cerebral hemisphere. Inferiorly, the parietal lobe is defined by the posterior ramus
of the lateral sulcus continuing across via an imaginary line inferior to the parietooccipital sulcus.

Within the parietal lobe, the postcentral sulcus runs posterior to the central fissure defining the
postcentral gyrus in between which houses the primary somatosensory cortex. And just like we saw
with the primary motor cortex, the primary sensory cortex is also topologically arranged with different
areas of cortex dedicated to certain regions of the body.

The remainder of the parietal lobe is divided into two primary parts divided by the intraparietal sulcus
which runs anteroposteriorly and superior to the intraparietal sulcus is the superior parietal lobule. And,
unsurprisingly, on the opposite side, is the inferior parietal lobule.

So, some notable gyri of the inferior parietal lobule include the supramarginal gyrus which is this part
arching around the end of the posterior ramus of the lateral sulcus, and the angular gyrus, which is this
section that arches over the superior temporal sulcus.

Alright, time for our next cerebral lobe which is the occipital lobe.

So, next time you’re staring at your beautiful loved one’s eyes, be sure to stop and take a moment to
thank your occipital lobe for the fact that you can actually see them. Yes, this is the part of our brain
which houses our primary visual cortex and processes visual stimuli received by the retina to produce
the image of the world as we know it.

The occipital lobe is the smallest of the four paired lobes of the brain and, topologically, it sits posterior
to the parietal and temporal lobes separated from them by an imaginary line reaching from the
parietooccipital sulcus down to the preoccipital notch.

From a lateral perspective, one of the sulci which we can identify on the occipital lobe is the lateral
occipital sulcus, seen here dividing the occipital lobe into superior and inferior occipital gyri.

So, we’ve spoken about the four superficial lobes of the brain so far. Let’s explore a fifth area now
which is known as the insular lobe.

So, if there’s one type of food that I love, it’s gotta be Thai food. It’s really, really good and I love the
combinations of sour and sweet and salty and spicy food. It’s an explosion of flavor that sets my taste
buds on fire, and it also sets my gustatory or taste cortex equally alight, which happens to be partially
located within the insular lobe.

The name “insula” in itself means hidden, and as you can see in the illustration, it can only be
visualized by means of retraction of the lateral sulcus, and it is sometimes described as the fifth lobe of
the brain. However, other people might simply describe it as a distinct area, rather than an actual lobe.
But we’re not going to get into that debate today.

So, looking at its anatomy, we can see the insula or the insular cortex is overlapped by the surrounding
frontal, parietal and temporal lobes which occlude it from view. And the surrounding areas are known
as the opercular and there are three of these in total – the frontal operculum, the parietal operculum,
and the temporal operculum. As with the other lobes, the surface of the insula can be divided into
smaller gyri and in this case, the dividing sulcus is this one here, which is the central sulcus of the
insula. Anterior to the sulcus are the short gyri of the insula which posterior to it will find the long gyrus
of the insula.

And with that, we’ve explored the major landmarks and divisions of the cerebrum from a lateral
perspective.

So, before we finish up, let’s take a moment to take a clinical look at one of the areas that we studied
today.

So, you may remember earlier, we briefly mentioned this part of the brain which is known as Broca’s
area, and you might also remember that we said this area is responsible for the production of speech,
and is more often located on the left hand side of the cerebrum in most people. And this part of the
brain receives its arterial supply via the superior division of the middle cerebral artery, the one which
you can now see highlighted on the illustration.

Now, what would happen if someone experienced an occlusion of this artery – say, for example, due to
a clot? Well, as you might have guessed, we would commonly refer to this as a stroke or a
cerebrovascular accident. A stroke affecting Broca’s area can result in a condition called Broca’s
aphasia, also known as non-fluent or expressive aphasia. And since Broca’s area is primarily
responsible for putting words together to form sentences, Broca’s aphasia decreases our ability to do
the same.

For example, if a sufferer of a stroke within Broca’s area wanted to say “I worked in an office doing
accounting”, they’d be more likely to say something like “worked… office… accounting…” So, as you
can see, a person with Broca’s aphasia relies on keywords to communicate their message, but often
might omit functional words such as prepositions and articles. For example, in and an. Their speech,
nevertheless, appears effortful and often pretty frustrated as the sufferers usually pretty aware of the
difficulties that they’re having in finding the words.

Although comprehension remains generally intact with Broca’s aphasia, sufferers may have difficulty in
understanding order and sequencing sentences. For example, as “I was bitten by a dog”, could be
understood as “I bit the dog.” Interestingly though, although sufferers of Broca’s aphasia lose their
ability to speak, their ability to sing usually remains intact. And this presents a theory that speech and
singing may have different pathways in our brain.

In fact, functional studies of the brain have shown that the brain shows increased right hemispheric
activity when we’re singing. And many sufferers who have received therapeutic singing or what’s
known as melodic intonation therapy have shown an improvement in speech production suggesting
that these activities help activate language processing centers in the right hemisphere.

It’s all very interesting. Our brains are truly very impressive supercomputers, to say the very least.

Alright so, on that note, we’re going to wrap things up on this video tutorial, but before we do, let’s
quickly summarize the anatomy of the cerebrum that we learned today.

So, we started off by first identifying the four major superficial lobes of the brain which were the frontal,
temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes. Beginning with the frontal lobe, we saw that it was limited
posteriorly by the central sulcus and inferiorly by the lateral sulcus with its anterior most tip being
referred to as the frontal pole. We learned about some of its major sulci and gyri including the
precentral sulcus which defines the precentral gyrus which is the home of our primary motor cortex.
We also identified the superior and inferior frontal sulci which separates the superior, middle, and
inferior frontal gyri. And when we then focused specifically on the inferior frontal gyrus, we saw that it
could be further subdivided into three main parts which were the orbital, triangular, and opercular parts.

We next looked at the temporal lobe which we learned was bounded superiorly by the lateral sulcus
and anteriorly at the temporal pole, and looking at its posterior limit, we learned the temporal lobe
extended back as far as this landmark here which is the preoccipital notch. While looking at its
subdivisions, we first identified the two primary sulci which were the superior and inferior temporal sulci
which defined three main gyri – the superior, middle, and inferior temporal lobes.

Moving on to the parietal lobe next, which is located posterior to the central sulcus, there’s the
postcentral gyrus which houses the primary somatosensory cortex and is bounded by the sulcus here
which is the postcentral sulcus. Other notable landmarks of the parietal lobe included the intraparietal
sulcus which separated the superior parietal lobule from the inferior parietal lobule. And when looking
at the inferior parietal lobule, we also noted two major gyri which were the supramarginal gyrus and the
angular gyrus.

The posterior end of each cerebral hemisphere, we took a quick look at the occipital lobe which is
roughly bounded anteriorly by an imaginary line reaching from the parietooccipital sulcus down to the
preoccipital notch. As most of the optical lobe is located along the medial aspect of each cerebral
hemisphere, we mentioned just one sulcus here, which was the lateral occipital sulcus which separates
the superior and inferior occipital gyri.
Finally, we prised apart the lateral sulcus here to reveal the insular lobe, and we identified the
surrounding cortex to the insula as the opercular namely the frontal operculum and the parietal
operculum, and the temporal operculum. And focusing on the insula itself, we finally identified the
central sulcus of the insula which separates the short insular gyri from the long gyrus of the insula.

And that’s it! Take a breath of relief and a moment to relax because this tutorial is done and tested. I
hope you enjoyed it and please be sure to check out our website at kenhub.com for more quizzes,
articles and atlas sections on all that we’ve studied today.

And until next time, happy studying!

Cells and Tissues


If you had to guess, roughly how many cells do you think there are in the human body? Five million?
No, that’s too little. A hundred million? No, probably more than that. How about three billion? Still too
little. Hmmm. Five hundred billion? I mean, yeah, that seems plausible, right? Well, we’re actually still
way off, because it’s estimated that we have over thirty-two trillion cells in our bodies. Yeah, you heard
me – THIRTY-TWO TRILLION. And on top of that, our body produces an average over a billion new
cells every hour which are needed to grow and replace dead or lost cells.

Despite there being so many in a healthy body, all of these thirty-two trillion cells magnificently come
together and all work towards one common goal, and this is homeostasis, which is the process of
maintenance and regulation of our bodies to provide stability and consistency within our internal
environments while dealing with external changes.

Among these thirty-two trillion cells, we have roughly about two hundred types of cells, all of which are
specialized for the function they play on our bodies. Groups of similar cells work together to perform
their designated function and in doing so, they form tissues which essentially are the very fabric of our
body which holds us together, gives us shape and – feeling overwhelmed? Don’t be. It’s not as
complicated as it looks. It will all shortly make sense. Trust me.

So, welcome to our introduction on cells and tissues.

Luckily for us, despite our body containing over two hundred types of cells, all of this complexity can
actually be summed up into just four primary types of tissue, and these are, epithelial tissue which lines
the inside and outside of the body providing us with cover and protection, muscle tissue which of
course provides us with means for movement and ability, connective tissue that supports our whole
body and prevents us from looking like a giant and maybe like a pile of goo, and finally nervous tissue
which our body uses for communication and control of bodily functions.

Before we begin exploring the four major types of tissue, let’s first get familiar with the photos taken of
cells and tissues through a microscope – micrographs.
So as you may know already, histology is the study of microscopic anatomy, but since we can’t provide
you with your own microscope and samples to view the cells and tissues we’ll be discussing, instead
you’ll see many micrographs in this tutorial. And in this micrograph, you can see the stained cross-
section of a ureter, and we’ll use staining when it comes to visualizing cells and tissues because
staining creates a color contrast which can allow for cells and their internal structures to become more
distinguishable. So, let’s explore each of the different major types of tissue in more detail, beginning
first with epithelial tissue.

Epithelial tissue, also referred to as epithelia, is composed of sheets of cells which fall into one of two
groups. The first of these is known as epithelial tissue proper, also known as covering epithelia, due to
the fact that it covers the external surface or lines the internal surfaces of most organs. Examples of
these would be the epidermal epithelia in your skin or respiratory epithelium lining your trachea and
bronchi.

The second type is known as glandular or secretory epithelia which forms our glands. It functions to
produce and secrete various macromolecules into our bloodstream or directly onto an epithelial
surface via ducts. You’ll find examples of glandular epithelium in the gastric glands of your stomach as
well as your sweat glands.

Epithelial cells live in direct contact with one another meaning that there’s little intercellular space
between them. They’re also avascular which means that they don’t have a direct blood supply. Instead,
they receive their nutrition from surrounding and underlying connective tissue.

In terms of the classification, epithelial cells are generally classified according to their morphology or
shape – cuboidal, squamous or columnar – and according to how they are arranged – simple or
stratified. As the name suggests, cuboidal epithelial cells are roughly cubish in shape, meaning that
they’re roughly equal in height and width. Squamous refers to scale-like, thin, or flattened cells, while
columnar describes these tall column-like epithelial cells. Simple epithelium refers to a single cell layer
and stratified refers to multiple cell layers.

It is this shape and arrangement of the epithelial cells which typically determines the name for each
epithelial tissue. For example, we can have simple cuboidal, simple squamous, simple columnar,
stratified cuboidal, stratified squamous, and stratified columnar. There are a lot of epithelial tissues to
discuss so pay close attention as we continue, and don’t forget to take notes.

So, simple cuboidal epithelium lines small tubules, ducts, and glands throughout the body. Its primary
functions are secretion and absorption. In this micrograph showing a portion of a kidney cross-section,
simple cuboidal epithelium can be seen here lining one of the many collecting tubules that are
responsible for concentrating urine.
Stratified cuboidal epithelium has the same functions, but is less common. It can be found primarily in
the ducts of sweat glands and lining larger tubules.

Simple squamous epithelium create a selective barrier for the diffusion of small molecules. It can
therefore be found anywhere diffusion occurs, such as the lining of alveoli and blood vessels. In this
micrograph, it can be seen just here composing the innermost of an artery wall.

Stratified squamous epithelium, meanwhile, primarily provides protection. It can be found anywhere in
the body where constant abrasion occurs, such as the esophagus and the lining of the oral cavity. The
epidermis where constant mechanical abrasion occurs is made up of a specialized form of this tissue
pictured here and called keratinized stratified squamous epithelium, which is dead cells engorged in
keratin on its outermost layers.

Simple columnar epithelium has the functions of absorption, secretion, protection, and lubrication. It
can be found lining the gastrointestinal tract. In this micrograph, simple columnar epithelium can be
seen lining intestinal villi.

Stratified columnar epithelium, on the other hand, is not common. It has the same functions and can be
found in certain large exocrine glands as seen here in a large duct of the sublingual salivary gland as
well as the anorectal junction. Specialized tissue is often confused for stratified columnar epithelium
because a single-cell layer can appear stratified. This common tissue is aptly named pseudostratified
columnar epithelium. It can be found primarily lining the respiratory tract and has the same functions as
simple columnar epithelium.

The last epithelial tissue that we’re going to be looking at today takes us back to the first micrograph
we saw which is a cross-section of a ureter, and this unique tissue is called transitional epithelium and
is formed by stratified cells that can appear both squamous and cuboidal. For example, when urine
passes through the ureter, the exertion of pressure forces the dilation of the lumen, which in turn
flattens the outer cuboidal cells into squamous cells.

In this micrograph, the lumen is not dilated, however, and therefore most of the cells appear cuboidal.
This tissue is also known as urothelium due to the fact that it is exclusive to the ureter and parts of the
urinary bladder and urethra, and its function is to distend the tissues that collect and pass urine.

It is also common for cuboidal and columnar cells to present specialized projecting structures on their
luminal surfaces. These are the function to increase the surface area of the cell for optimized
absorption or to move substances along the epithelial surface itself.

And there are three main types of such specializations, and these are microvilli such as those which
form the brush border found on your small intestine, stereocilia which can be found in the epididymis
and ductus deferens, and finally, cilia which you can find in your trachea and bronchi. All epithelial
tissue is separated from underlying tissue by a basement membrane, and this is shown here in green.
This specialized extracellular matrix is responsible for providing support to tissues.

From time to time, you may find that the basement membrane is often called the basal lamina,
however, it’s important to note that the basal lamina is actually just one of the layers comprising the
basement membrane and they’re not interchangeable terms. Basement membrane equals basal
lamina plus the lamina propria.

Okay, so now that we’ve reviewed epithelial tissue, let’s move on to connective tissue.

So, the question I hear you ask now that we’ve moved on from epithelial tissue is, what is connective
tissue, and how is it different?

Well, for starters, connective tissue is the most abundant tissue in the body, and being the most
abundant, it is also the most diverse type of body tissue. So much so that you might never even think it
different types of connective tissue are even related to one another. You’ll see what I mean by that in
just a moment.

The one thing that connects all types of connective tissue, though, is their origin. Yes, all connective
tissue arises from the same multipotent tissue which is known as mesenchyme – a loosely organized
and fluid type of embryonic tissue which some referred to as embryonic soup. Yes, I know, I’m never
going to look at soup the same way again either.

In most cases, connective tissue consists of cells located in a sea of extracellular material known as
the extracellular matrix. And this matrix consists of fluids and something known as ground substance,
which is basically a jelly-like material that fills all the spaces between the cells. Within this ground
substance, there are lots and lots of embedded fibers such as collagen which is actually stronger than
steel and is that very same stuff that some people inject into their faces to plump up, elastic fibers
which allow tissues to stretch and recoil like a rubber band, and reticular fibers which form a meshwork
of spongy material which holds everything in place. And this all help determine the physical properties
of the particular type of connective tissue.

So when comparing epithelial with connective tissue, one major difference between them is the relative
abundance of this extracellular material as well as the fibers seen in connective tissue, but fewer cells
by volume.

The primary function of connective tissue is to provide a structure and support as well as to connect or
bind our tissues together just as its name suggests. It also works to provide protection to our body as
well as insulation to our other tissues and organs and some types of connective tissue also have a role
in storage of energy as well as working as a transport system within our body. Of course, since there
are lots of different types of connective tissue, there are equally lots of different types of cell types,
specific to each particular type of connective tissue. They do, however, share some common features
and generally can be divided into two major types – immature connective tissue cells and mature
connective tissue cells.

So immature cells are pretty easy to recognize by their names because they end in the suffix –blast –
for example, fibroblasts in proper connective tissue, chondroblasts in cartilage, osteoblasts in bone,
lipoblasts in your fat tissues, and even hemocytoblasts in your blood. And despite what their names
might suggest, these cells are not involved in blowing anything up. In fact, it’s quite the contrary.

Among their many functions is to secrete the ground substance and fibers needed to build up their
related connective tissue. And once they’ve done their job producing extracellular matrix amongst
many other things, they transition into their mature form which tend to be less active and sometimes
described as resting. These cell types give up their blasts surname and instead end up with the suffix –
cyte. So our fibroblasts turn into fibrocytes, our chondroblasts into chondrocytes, our osteoblasts into
osteocytes, and so on.

These cells can sometimes revert back into immature form should they need to repair and rebuild
tissue, but in general, they function to maintain the tissue built by its progenitor blast cell.

So these are the cells that make and maintain your blood, ligaments, cartilage, and bone, and basically
everything that holds you together and ensures that you don’t look like a giant blob of Jell-O.

Now, that’s not the end of the story when it comes to the cell types in connective tissue. There’s
another class of cell types which aren’t involved in building connective tissue, but rather worked to
protect you from, well, everything really. And these are your immune cells, such as macrophages and
white blood cells like neutrophils, eosinophils, monocytes, and lymphocytes, and the list goes on.
These guys are like the army, the marines, the navy seals, and the FBI of your body all combined who
scout your connective tissues, fighting off invaders and external threats.

So, let’s take a closer look now at some of the different types of connective tissue.

So, there are three groupings of connective tissue based on the type of extracellular matrix present –
tissues with liquid matrices, tissues with semi-sold matrices, and tissues with solid matrices. So, first,
we have that one of the connective tissue types are tissues with liquid matrices and one of the most
significant connective tissues with liquid matrices in the body is one of the key liquids of the
cardiovascular system, and that is blood.

And blood is composed of red blood cells called erythrocytes and white blood cells called leukocytes,
and these cells are contained by a liquid matrix called the plasma. In this micrograph, we can see the
erythrocytes as reddish brown discs and there’s one leucocyte example present in this image and
that’s the one that’s circled and then shown in our breakout. And note that the dark green area
represents the cell nucleus.

The red blood cells don’t have this dark purple staining that’s shown in the non-highlighted leucocyte in
the circle to the left because they’re anuclear, meaning that they do not possess a nucleus. And in this
image, the small purple dots like this one here are platelets which aid in blood clot formation, and as
we mentioned, there are a few types of connective tissue with semi-solid matrices which are commonly
referred to connective tissue proper.

And the first of these is the tissue we’ll call loose connective tissue, and this type of tissue can be
found in three primary forms, the first of which is known as areolar tissue. Areolar tissue is widespread
throughout the body and can often be found deep to the basement membrane of the epithelium. It
contains a meshwork of collagen and elastin fibers and is therefore very flexible. Loose connective
tissue is also the site of rapid fluid and gaseous exchange between tissues.

The second type of loose connective tissue is known as reticular connective tissue which acts like a
scaffold in certain tissues providing other cell types with a home to mature or to develop. And you’ll find
reticular connective tissue in structures like your lymph nodes, your spleen, and bone marrow.

One last type of loose connective tissue is adipose tissue which, to you and me, is a.k.a fat tissue. It’s
a unique type of connective tissue because unlike the others, it doesn’t have much extracellular
material and is instead mostly cellular. Adipose tissue typically can be found encasing organs or other
structures, and it’s made up of fat cells called adipocytes. Adipose tissue can be found all over the
body including subcutaneously.

But before you go cursing your adipose tissue for fear of a dreaded potbelly and love handles, in the
correct amounts, it is actually an extremely important tissue in our body because it provides insulation
to protect us from excessive heat loss and it also provides protection for our organs such as our heart
and kidneys, and finally and most critically, fat is our fuel tank – a calorie reserve that keeps our body
ticking over during extended periods without food intake.

During fixation and staining, the fat containing adipocytes is removed leaving them empty in
appearance with the nucleus at the periphery which as you can see gives them a very distinct ring-like
appearance in histological section.

So, we’re moving on now to our second kind of connective tissue with semi-solid matrices which is
loose connective tissue’s cousin – dense connective tissue – and as we can tell from the name, dense
connective tissue is more dense than loose connective tissue, and just like loose connective tissue,
dense connective dense connective has three main subtypes.
The first is dense regular connective tissue which you’re looking at now on your screen and this type of
tissue contains more collagen than elastin and presents an organized or regular arrangement of fibers
which provides it with greater strength. This tissue forms strong tissues such as ligaments and tendon
which you can see now on your screen.

The second type of dense connective tissue is known as dense irregular connective tissue. Dermis
which is mostly found in the dermis of the skin. And as you can see, it has a more haphazard
arrangement compared to its tendinous and ligamentous cousins. The final type of dense connective
tissue is known as elastic connective tissue, which true to its name, is full of elastic fibers which allow it
to stretch and recoil. A good example of elastic connective tissue is that found in your larger elastic
arteries just like you can see here in this micrograph.

So moving on to look at some examples of connective tissue with solid matrices, left’s first take a look
at cartilage. And once again, we can identify several subtypes in this category of connective tissue. So,
hyaline cartilage is the most common type of cartilage in the human body and can be found on the
articulating surfaces of bones, the costal cartilage of the ribs, and surrounding the trachea. In this
micrograph, we can see the trachea with hyaline cartilage visible in the purple-stained section shaped
like a U, and this hyaline cartilage is responsible for the rigidity of the trachea which prevents it from
collapsing.

Other types of cartilage include elastic cartilage like that found in your ears, fibrocartilage which you’ll
find in your intervertebral discs, and pubic symphysis and physeal cartilage which makes up the growth
plates in your bones. But regardless of the type of cartilage, remember that the resident cells found in
this type of tissue are known as chondroblasts in growing cartilage and chondrocytes in developed.

Another type of connective tissue with solid matrices is bone, and it’s a form of calcified connective
tissue which provides support and protection to soft tissues and, of course, it is the tissue that makes
up the skeletal system. Bone tissue comes primarily in two forms. Compact or cortical bone which is a
dense and highly organized tissue which contains Haversian systems like this one here and they each
contain a Haversian canal which is surrounded by concentric layers of lamellae. Within this lamellae lie
the osteocytes which are your resting bone cells.

The other type of bone is known as spongy or trabecular bone which is porous and not as dense as
compact bone. It’s typically found in the heads of your long bones or in the center of your flat bones
and is formed of struts or pillars of bone which are known as trabeculae. And the pores or spaces seen
between these trabeculae is where your bone makes and stores bone marrow.

Okay, so we’ve now discussed epithelial tissues and connective tissues, let’s move on now to muscle
tissue.
So, muscle tissue is exactly what you think it is. Yes, it’s that red, meaty tissue which affords mobility to
many of our internal organs as well as to our body as a whole. So, muscle tissue is particularly unique
because it is able to convert chemical energy which we obtained mainly from food and convert it into
mechanical energy, thereby, allowing us to lift things, go running, and give your beloved a sweet lovely
wet one. Oh, get a room you two!

The cells that comprise muscles are usually elongated and capable of contraction due to special
proteins known as actin and myosin filaments which are the workhorse of all muscle tissues. And there
are three types of muscle – smooth muscle, skeletal muscle, and cardiac muscle.

In this micrograph, you can see skeletal muscle – and let’s just increase the magnification. So, skeletal
muscle is associated with the skeletal system through tendinous attachments and is primary
responsible for the voluntary movements and posturing of the skeleton. Its cells commonly referred to
as muscle fibers are long and non-branching and may be several centimeters in length. Each fiber is
multinucleated containing thousands of peripheral nuclei situated at regular intervals. Skeletal muscle
has a striated appearance due to the perpendicular arrangement of actin and myosin filaments
crossing over each fiber, and each muscle fiber is controlled by a synapse within a motor neuron.

Our next type of muscle tissue is cardiac muscle which, as its name suggests, is found only in the
heart. The actin and myosin arrangement again gives this tissue a striated appearance which you can
see here like skeletal muscle; however, unlike skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle cells contain only one
or two nuclei, and cardiac muscle cells also form a complex three-dimensional network of branches.
Between adjacent cells lie intercalated discs which have gap junctions and these allow the heart to
beat in synchrony, and because of its specialized intercellular junctions, cardiac muscle is fortunately
considered to be involuntary and contracts without any conscious input.

Our final type of muscle tissue to explore is smooth muscle, also called visceral muscle, and this is
found encapsulating our arteries and the tubular organs of the digestive, urinary, and reproductive
tracts. Smooth muscle cells contain a single central nucleus and are connective to one another via gap
junctions which allow them to communicate with one another. These cells are spindle-shaped and
contain randomly arranged actin and myosin filaments giving smooth muscle cell a smooth, non-
striated appearance as opposed to the striated appearance of the other two types of muscles.

Like cardiac muscle, smooth muscle control is also involuntary which is handy as it means you don’t
need to think about pushing that burger you ate for lunch through your nine meter digestive tract. It just
goes in one end, and thanks to your smooth muscle, comes out the other end a few hours later.

The final type of tissue that we’ll look at is nervous tissue, and this, of course, makes up the nervous
system. The nervous system can be divided into the central nervous system or the CNS which is
comprised of the brain and spinal cord, and the peripheral nervous system or PNS which is comprised
of nerves that transmits signals to and from the CNS and the rest of the body. Nervous tissue cells are
called neurons. The neurons that transmit signals away from the CNS to the body are called efferent
neurons such as your motor neurons while those that transmit signals from the body towards the CNS
are called afferent neurons just like your sensory neurons.

So, of course, neurons come in different shapes and sizes, however, regardless of their morphology,
they all share three common features. So, they all have a cell body which is the control center of the
cell and that contains the nucleus. They all contain dendrites which are these branch-like structures
here communicating with other nerve cells in a sort of input channel into the neuron, and finally, we
have this axon which is the transmission cable for the electrical signal passing through the nerve, and it
may synapse with another neuron or directly with its target structure.

In addition to neurons, the nervous system is also composed of specialized supporting cells called glial
cells, and these are your Schwann cells in the peripheral nervous system or oligodendrocytes and
astrocytes found in your central nervous system. And this help to provide support, protection, and
insulation to various parts of the neuron.

And that’s it! You’ve now had a basic introduction to the four tissues of the human body, and you’re on
your way to becoming a histology pro.

Remember the four types that we looked at today? These were epithelial tissue which we saw can be
divided into two primary classifications – epithelial tissue proper or covering epithelium which lines the
internal and external surfaces of our organs, and glandular epithelium which forms the ducts and
secretory parts of several glands in our body.

Next stop was connective tissue, which we saw is grouped by the following classifications – connective
tissue within a liquid matrix such as blood or lymph; connective tissue within a semi-solid matrix,
examples of which include loose areolar connective tissue or dense fibrous connective tissue; and
finally, connective tissue within a solid matrix such as bone or cartilage.

After looking at connective tissue, we moved on to muscle tissue where we discovered three primary
types and these included skeletal muscle which allow our bodies to move around within our external
environment, smooth muscle which affords our organs motility within our internal environment and, of
course, cardiac muscle which is unique to the heart.

And last but not least, we finished off with nerve tissue, and this time we spoke about two main types
of cells which comprised this tissue and these were neurons or nerve cells which carry electrical
impulses, and glial cells, which support, maintain and protect the neurons.

And that’s it! This video tutorial is done and dusted. I hope you enjoyed learning about the four major
types of tissue in our body. Catch you next time!

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