Our bodies are made up of cells that are connected into stacked groups that share in doing a particular job.
These are called “tissues” and they aren’t the kind that you use to blow your nose!
Tissues are very complex and when they combine to make up all of the organs in your body you have the twelve organ systems that make you who you are.
Animals and plants have developed to include tissues as part of their makeup.
Mammals (including us) have four main types of tissues: epithelial, muscle, connective tissue and nervous tissue.
Epithelial Tissue
Epithelial tissue is part of a defense system for your body.
It protects the outside of your body in the form of skin, and lines the outside of your internal organs such as the small intestine, pancreas, kidneys and liver.
Epithelial tissue even lines your blood vessels and some of your body cavities such as your throat and mouth.
This tissue helps to keep out unwanted materials such as bacteria from passing through to cause you harm.
Muscle Tissue
The first thing that you probably think of when you hear about muscle tissues are those that you use as skeletal muscles that help you jump, run, and move.
These are only one of the types of muscles that we have in our bodies.
Muscle cells blend to make long fibers that create soft muscle tissue and each type has a different purpose.
The main purpose of muscles is to produce motion and force.
Our cardiac muscles lets our heart beat so that we can pump blood, smooth muscles run throughout our bodies including our digestive tract and blood vessels, and our brain has muscles that help to control our bodies.
It’s our brain that automatically controls the cardiac and smooth muscles. While we can control those in our arms by lifting them, we can’t control our heart by just thinking about them.
Connective Tissue
Connective tissue is kind of like it sounds. This kind of tissue connects other types of tissue as well as our organs so that they work together.
Connective tissues are typically made up of what are called “extracellular matrix”, which is just a scientific name to say that they are a mixture.
Your connective tissue helps to separate tendons, bone, ligaments, cartilage, and even fat so that your body moves easily and different parts don’t rub or run into each other.
Nervous Tissue
These are the tissues that are associated with your senses.
They process information through the nerves throughout your body and then quickly send this information to your brain through the brain tissue in your spinal cord.
Nervous tissues help you to feel an object, make your muscle move to react, and even think. Nervous tissues are involved in all five of your senses.
Plants Have Tissues Too!
Plants also have a need to protect themselves both inside and outside. Plant tissue is specialized for them and they have three types: dermal, vascular, and ground tissues.
To protect their exterior from attacks and weather, the plant dermal tissues is similar to our epithelial tissues and it is in layers.
The plant’s vascular tissue has the job of moving nutrients and water throughout the plant.
Because so much of a plant’s existence depends on photosynthesis and nutrient storage, all other plant parts are devoted to ground tissue.
Facts about Tissues
- When different kinds of tissues are groups and organized together, they can form organs.
- Your sweat glands are epithelial tissues.
- If you didn’t have the connective tissues to separate your bones, you wouldn’t be able to move without quickly wearing the bones down.
- The type of function of a tissue is determined by the material type that surrounds the tissue as well as the communication within the tissue cells. Muscle tissue has a special function around the bones, whereas skin tissue is on the outside protecting the layers under it.
- The reason that connective tissue in animals is mostly made up of collagen is that animals have more collagen protein than any other kind of protein. Collagen makes up around 25% of the total protein in animals.
- Your intestines, stomach, and bladder are examples of “smooth muscle” and they move on their own without your requirement to think about them.
Interesting Facts about Biology
- Cerebral palsy is a disorder that affects both motor functions and balance. Muscular dystrophy is a disease that is genetic and causes muscle fiber damage.
- When you see a body builder that has big muscles you need to know that in order to get them they had to over exert the muscle which then tears and rips the tissues. Once that happens, the muscles repair themselves by adding layers that make them larger.
- The smallest snake in the world is the Barbados Thread snake.
- When you first wake up in the morning you have extra fluid that your spinal discs release that makes you half an inch taller. The discs are compressed throughout the day and you lose that half an inch due to the stress.
- Once a person reaches 18 years of age, the brain stops growing.
- If a human being could be a digital camera, our eyes would have 576 megapixels.
Tissues Quiz
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