THE IN-BETWEENERS ◆ ISSUE #01 ◆ SERIES I: THE LOOSE DIVISION
The Packing Peanut
Areolar connective tissue · he / him
“Go ahead. Squeeze me. I’ll be fine.”
POWER: Soaks up waterThe universal solvent essential for life. and springs back from any squeeze.
WEAKNESS: Cannot hold up a single thing. Not one.
FIBERS: All three. Collagen, elastic and reticular.
SECRET IDENTITY: The greasy apron over your intestines.
Areolar connective tissue is the packing material of the body. It fills in open spaces. It is the go-to example of connective tissue because it can hold all three protein fibers at once.
He’s Not Clingy. He’s Just Everywhere.
Where he lives, what he does, and the one thing he can’t do
Where he lives
- Right beneath the epidermisThe outermost layer of the skin, made of stratified squamous epithelium., cushioning the skinThe body’s largest organ, providing protection and regulation.
- Wrapped around blood vessels, lymphatic vessels, and nerves
- Filling the spaces between muscles
- The lamina propria under the epithelium of the digestive, respiratory, and urinary tractsBundles of nerve fibers in the CNS that carry signals between brain regions.
His powers
- Holds organs, vessels, and nerves loosely in place and lets them move
- Cushions delicate structures against bumps and pressureThe force exerted by gases in the respiratory system, affecting airflow and gas exchange.
- Highly vascular: nutrients, gases, and wastes swap here
- First on the scene in wound healing, scaffolding for repair cellsThe basic structural and functional units of life.
His weakness
He cannot hold up a single thing. Not one.
Way more space than fiber, fibers running every which way. That loose, open build is exactly why he squishes so well, and exactly why he can’t bear a load.
Every weakness is the structure.
Brought Literally Everything to the Sleepover
His matrix: gel, water, and three kinds of fiber
The extracellular matrix is a gel-like ground substance of water, glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), proteoglycans, and glycoproteinsProteins with carbohydrate groups attached, involved in cell signaling.. That gel is what cushions and protects delicate structures from mechanical stress.
Collagen
The most abundant fiber here. Thick, pink-stained bundles. Tear them and you get stretch marks; let them sag and you get wrinkles.
Elastic
Thinner and squiggly, woven between the collagenA structural protein in the dermis that provides strength and elasticity.. They take up the pink of H&E, but special stains turn them black so you can actually find them.
Reticular
A delicate mesh of type III collagen. Hard to spot here: they need a special stain and show up blue-black. Small, but they build the scaffolding.
The crew: his cells
Fibroblasts
The most abundant cell. They make the protein fibers.
Fibrocytes
The maintenance crew. They keep up the fibers and matrix.
Mast cells
Packed with histamine vesicles. They set off allergic responses; antihistamines block them.
Macrophages
Former monocytes that moved in for good. They eat anything they don’t recognize.
Photobombed Every Slide Since First Period
Real slides. Find him in every one.
Exhibit A
Exhibit B
Exhibit C
Exhibit D
Exhibit E
Exhibits A–C: University of Michigan Histology (slides 033, 107, 106), licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.
Stalk Their Actual Profile
Drive the microscope yourself
Virtual slide: mesentery
The purple tab on the right opens a panel with information and links.
Prove You Were Actually Paying Attention
Prove you can spot him
Mission 1: What is he made of?
Mission 2: Foundations quick check
Mission 3: The Loose Three quick check
Mission 4: Coming soon
Open slot for a new H5P. Replace this block with a shortcode such as [h5p id="000"], for example a hotspot activity built from one of the Evidence Board slides.
Videos Nobody Asked You to Watch (Watch Them)
Everyone Keeps Mixing Him Up With Kids From Other Tables
Students confuse him with these two. Here’s how to tell.
The Basketweaver
Dense irregular. Same every-which-way fibers, but packed tight with almost no open space. If you can barely see the gel, it isn’t the Peanut.
The Bouncer
Elastic cartilageA flexible connective tissue found in joints, the ear, nose, and rib cage. Cartilage can be of three. Also full of squiggly elastic fibers, but his cells sit in lacunae, little hollows in a firm matrix. The Peanut has no lacunae.
List of terms
- water
- epidermis
- skin
- tracts
- pressure
- cells
- glycoproteins
- collagen
- cartilage