Reticular Tissue – Tutorial
Please read Unit 2 – Introduction to Connective Tissues prior to completing the activities in this chapter.
Introduction to Reticular Tissue
Reticular tissue is a type of connective tissue proper with an extracellular matrix consisting of an interwoven network of reticular fibers that provide a strong yet somewhat flexible framework (known as the stroma) for other types of functional cells to anchor within an organ or tissue. Reticular tissue forms the stroma for the spleen, lymph nodes, red bone marrow, liver, and kidneys. Reticular tissue can be considered more of a structural framework for tissues (stroma) than an actual tissue type. Because of this, reticular tissue appears very different from one organ to the next and reticular fibers are difficult to visualize using normal light microscopy techniques in organs other than lymph nodes. Widely spaced fibroblasts within reticular tissue secrete proteins that assemble into reticular fibers, but they are difficult to identify since fibroblast nuclei stain the same dark color as reticular fibers when viewed under a microscope.
