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Why are reticular fibers considered a form of collagen?
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connective tissue
Randomly oriented collagenous fibers of varying size in a thin spread of loose areolar connective tissue (magnified about 370 Ć).
Reticular fibers are considered a form of collagen because electron microscopy has revealed that they are composed of small fascicles of typical collagen fibrils interwoven to form a fine-meshed network.1
While they were once thought to be made of a distinct protein called reticulin, it is now understood that they are simply a specific structural arrangement of collagen. Their unique anatomical propertiesāsuch as their ability to stain black with silver salts and their failure to form gelatin when boiledāare attributed to the specific way these fibrils are associated and their relationship with the surrounding polysaccharide material that binds them together.12