Loose connective tissue skin and mucous membranes, it is more compact and sometimes difficult to distinguish from dense irregular connective tissue. Areolar connective tissues hold organs in place and attaches epithelial tissue to other underlying tissues. It also serves as a reservoir of water and salts for surrounding tissues. Almost all cells obtain their nutrients from and release their wastes into areolar connective tissue. Organs that are rich in loose connective tissue(such as the eyelids) are usually sites that undergo oedema indicating renal failure or nephrotic syndrome. Thus periorbital swelling is one characteristic finding in severe renal disease Loose connective tissue Loose connective
Reinke's edema cord fibroblasts. In normal tissue, these spindle-shaped CD34+ fibroblasts produce extracellular matrix proteins such as collagen and elastin. Recent findings have shown a morphological change in fibroblasts extracted from the tissue of Reinke's edema to a more dendritic-like shape with several protrusions. Large populations of these altered CD34+ fibroblasts have been found surrounding the areas of edema. They lack normal expression of several Cluster Differentiation (CD) proteins and express additional proteins that are not expressed in normal vocal cord fibroblasts. Furthermore, cigarette smoke was discovered to increase COX-2 and PGE2 expression in fibroblasts, which could indicate the role of cigarette