Loose Fibrous Connective Tissue

H & E Stain / [100X]

Please Note:

This tissue is the body’s "cob webby" "glue". It fills in, "where ever needed and something else isn’t".

The primary fiber type is collagen, but elastic fibers are also common. Collagen, an albuminoid protein, is by far and away the most abundant structural protein in the body.

This particular tissue sample is called "loose" because of the relatively low number of fibers and the "large" amount of space between the fibers [the intercellular matrix] and the cellular elements of the tissue [that produce the matrix].

Loose fibrous connective tissue "grades" into dense fibrous connective tissue as the number of fibers increases and the spaces in the tissue decrease.