Your study partner is having difficulty understanding dense fibrous connective tissue, tendons, and ligaments. Explain to her how they are related to each other and how they are different from other categories of connective tissue.
What will be an ideal response?
Dense fibrous connective tissue is a category of connective tissue, distinct from loose, adipose, blood, bone, and cartilage. It is not as dense as cartilage and bone but is denser than the other types listed. Like loose connective tissues, fibroblasts are the primary cell type, but unlike loose, the matrix consists of relatively more protein fibers and less ground substance. Like bone and cartilage, the fibers are primarily collagen. The fibers can be arranged randomly (irregular) or parallel to each other (regular). Tendons and ligaments are both composed of dense fibrous
connective tissue. Tendons attach muscles to bones, whereas ligaments attach bones to bones; tendons lack elastic
fibers, but they are present in ligaments; therefore ligaments are slightly stretchy.
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Fill in the blank(s) with the appropriate word(s).
Down syndrome is a congenital defect commonly caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21
a. True b. False Indicate whether the statement is true or false
The thymus is most active during ________.
A) fetal development B) childhood C) middle age D) old age
The text points out that the swim bladders of deep-sea fishes that migrate over large vertical distances are nearly filled with lipids, leaving space for only a small volume of gas, whereas deep-sea fishes that do not make large vertical migrations
have more gas and less lipid in their swim bladders. What is the functional significance of this difference?