CONNECTIVE TISSUE 



51 



onie connective tissue is round not only in the fetus but also in early child- 

 hood and in the adult, especially during regeneration of destroyed areas 

 of connective tissue, and in other more or less pathological conditions. 



i-: TISSUE CELLS 



FIG. 58. PLASMA 

 CELLS OF CONNEC- 

 TIVE TISSUE FROM 

 THE HUMAN BREAST. 



Hematein and eosin. 

 X 750. 



Connective tissue cells not only vary in number as they approach ma- 

 turity, but in their structure and appearance as well. The cells of em- 

 bryonic connective tissue are comparatively large, are frequently stellate 

 from the presence of numerous interlacing and 

 sometimes anastomosing branches, and their cyto- 

 plasm has a typical reticular or granular appear- 

 ance. In the later stages of their development 

 ameboid motion has been observed in such cells, 

 and within the limits of the tissue in which they 

 are developed, they are presumably endowed with 

 the power of locomotion. 



In the neighborhood of developing blood-ves- 

 sels plasma cells of large size and irregular shape 

 are frequently seen. The cytoplasm of these cells 



is of considerable volume, is finely granular, stains readily in most dyes, 

 especially the basic varieties, and is prolonged into broad protoplasmic 

 branches of considerable length. Both in the cell body and in the proc- 

 esses vacuoles are so numerous as to give the cell a typically reticular 



appearance, a peculiarity which is emphasized 

 ^ by the removal of the contents of the vacuoles, 



as frequently happens in the preparation of 

 microscopical specimens. Plasma cells are 

 found in considerable numbers in the mucous 

 membrane of the intestinal tract and in the 

 subcutaneous tissue, where they are frequently 

 of spheroidal form. 



In the denser forms of mature connective 

 tissue, where the cells are apparently subjected 



to more or less compression between the firm bundles of fibers, the con- 

 nective tissue cells lose their typical embryonal stellate form and become 

 somewhat fusiform; they are then known as the spindle cells of connec- 

 tive tissue. Such cells occur in great abundance in the stroma of the 

 ovary and the mucosa of the uterus and oviduct. 



In the mature tissue of the adult many of the cells become more or 



FIG. 59. SPINDLE-SHAPED 

 CONNECTIVE TISSUE 

 CELLS FROM THE STROMA 

 OF THE HUMAN OVARY. 



Hematein and 

 X 550. 



eosm. 



