Connective Tissue

Connective tissue is a widely distributed general type of tissue which supports, bind sand protects the special (well differentiated) tissues of the body. It has both the cellular and extracellular components.
The cellular component of connective tissue plays the role of active defense, whereas the extracellular component (fibers and ground substance) serves a number of mechanical functions of support and protection against the mechanical stresses and strains.
The ordinary type of connective tissue is distributed all over the, body, but the special type of connective tissue forms certain well differentiated tissues, like the bone and cartilage.
A number of cell types of the connective tissue are also found in the blood and lymph.
The greater part of connective tissue develops from embryonic mesoderm.
The cells of the connective tissue are widely separated by the abundance of extracellular matrix.

Constituent elements of connective tissue

Connective tissue is made up of cells and extracellular matrix.

• Cells
  Cells are fibroblast, macrophage, plasma cell, mast cell, fat cell, and pigment cell.

• Extracellular Matrix
  The matrix has a fibrous and a non–fibrous element. The fibrous element has three types of fibers — collagen, elastin and reticulin. The non fibrous element is formed by the ground substance.