DENSE REGULAR CONNECTIVE TISSUE – 1
Many organs are covered by a capsule that holds their constituents together and protects them from mechanical pressure and from contacting with neighboring organs. This is the case, for example, of salivary glands, organs in the abdominal cavity such as the liver, spleen, and adrenal glands, and also with lymph nodes scattered throughout the body, immersed in adipose tissue or loose connective tissue.
The capsules are composed by dense, modeled connective tissue. This connective tissue has many collagen fibers running parallel to each other. It is therefore very different from the dense irregular connective tissue, whose collagen fibers are arranged in numerous directions. In organ capsules, the collagen fibers run parallel to the surface of the organs they cover. There are relatively few cells in this tissue, represented primarily by fibroblasts and fibrocytes.
The figure shows a small segment of a capsule (highlighted in blue) that surrounds the testicle. The nuclei of the fibroblasts and fibrocytes of this capsule are very thin and run parallel to the collagen fibers.Their nuclei are also very thin.
