Animal tissue

Animal tissue refers to the group of cells that perform a similar function in an organism. These tissues are classified into four main types: epithelial tissue, connective tissue, muscle tissue, and nervous tissue. Each type of tissue has a specific role in the body and is essential for the organism's survival.

Epithelial Tissue

Epithelial tissue is the tissue that covers the body surface, lines its internal cavities and forms glands. It serves as a barrier against mechanical injury, pathogens, and fluid loss. Epithelial tissues are classified based on the number of cell layers and the shape of the cells. The types include simple squamous, stratified squamous, simple cuboidal, stratified cuboidal, simple columnar, stratified columnar, and transitional epithelium.

Connective Tissue

Connective tissue is the most abundant and widely distributed tissue in the body. It binds and supports other tissues, having a sparse population of cells scattered through an extracellular matrix. The matrix consists of fibers in a liquid, jellylike, or solid foundation. The major types of connective tissue include loose connective tissue, dense connective tissue, cartilage, bone, and blood.

Muscle Tissue

Muscle tissue is responsible for body movement. It is classified into three types based on the presence or absence of striations and control mechanism: skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, and smooth muscle. Skeletal muscle is attached to bones and can be controlled voluntarily. Cardiac muscle makes up the wall of the heart and is involuntary. Smooth muscle is found in the walls of hollow organs like the stomach and is also involuntary.

Nervous Tissue

Nervous tissue is the main component of the nervous system, which includes the brain, spinal cord, and nerves. It is responsible for coordinating and controlling many body activities. It stimulates muscle contraction, creates an awareness of the environment, and plays a major role in emotions, memory, and reasoning. To do all these things, nervous tissue conducts stimuli from sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord and conducts impulses back to other parts of the body.

See Also

• Cell (biology)
• Histology
• Organ (anatomy)