List of abbreviations		 Vocabulary
of micros-
copic
anatomy
specialist terms
explained in
English +
German

Every attempt was made to provide correct information and labelling, however any liability for eventual errors or incompleteness is rejected!
dieser Seite

Editor:
Dr. med.
H. Jastrow
Conditions
of use
Overview elastic cartilage (Cartilago elastica):
Pages with explanations are linked to the text below the images if available! (Labelling is in German)
chondrocyte 1 (monkey) idem overview idem brightened cell chondrocyte 2 (monkey) idem Übersicht chondrocyte 3 (monkey)
idem overview (monkey) Chondrocyte 4 (monkey) idem overview chondrocyte 5 (monkey) idem overview
chondron (monkey) chondrocyte 6 (monkey) chondron 2 (monkey)
Elastic cartilage (Terminologia histologica: Cartilago elastica) is characterised by the presence of many elastic fibres in the ground substance of the cartilage and therefore has a slight yellowish colour and some opacity. Elastic cartilage has a good elastic distortion capacity and flexibility. Its cells, the chondrocytes and -blasts (latter more active) are similar to those of hyaline cartilage, but they are more often seen singly lying in the cartilage cavities. They synthethise ground substance with less chondroitin sulfate and masked collagen fibres that are not visible in light microscopy. The elastic fibre meshwork is mainly present in the interterritorial substance, i.e. between the groups of cells, and continiues into the perichondrium. The elastic meshwork is detectable even without special stain for elastic fibres. There are few locations where elastic cartilage is present: the epiglottis, the corniculate and cuneiforme cartilages as well as the vocal process of the arythenoid cartilage of the larynx, the cartilage of the outer ear (Cartilago auriculae) and the external auditory tube (Meatus acusticus externus), the auditory tube (Tuba auditiva), and the wall of smallest bronchies of the lung.
Some more information is available in the German version of this page.

--> hyaline cartilage, connective tissue, collagen fibres, bone
--> Electron microscopic atlas Overview
--> Homepage of the workshop

Images were kindly provided by Prof. H. Wartenberg; page & copyright H. Jastrow.