In this video, we're going to talk about the 3rd loose connective tissue in our lesson, which is adipose connective tissue. And so as its name implies, what the term adipose, adipose connective tissue is going to be composed mostly of adipocytes, which, recall from our previous lesson videos, are fat cells that store fats or triglycerides as these relatively large lipid droplets that take up most of the volume of the adipocyte and push off its cytoplasm and organelles, including its nucleus off to the periphery or the perimeter of the adipocyte. And so notice if we take a look at this micrograph of adipose connective tissue, that the adipocytes or fat cells are being indicated as these circular white cells that you can see throughout the tissue. And so the white component of these cells is actually that relatively large lipid droplet made of fats or triglycerides that, again, takes up most of the volume of the adipocyte and pushes off its cytoplasm and organelles, including the nucleus off to the periphery or the perimeter of the cell. And although that's the case, these adipocytes are still functional cells, and so they can still secrete components, including components of the extracellular matrix, such as ground substance and protein fibers.
However, the extracellular matrix in adipose connective tissue is going to be sparse. And so it does have a sparse matrix, which means that it has relatively little extracellular matrix. And so that's why these adipocytes in the adipose connective tissue appear to be really tightly packed together as you can see in the micrograph. However, although they appear to be really tightly packed together, these cells are still very loosely arranged, which is why this is a loose connective tissue. And so each of these adipocytes, although they appear to be tightly packed together, they can actually enlarge in their size as their lipid droplet enlarges when they store more lipids or more fats.
And they can also decrease in their size as they release fats to the body, which can be used as energy in other locations of the body. And so it's important to note that adipose connective tissue is actually a highly vascularized tissue, which means that it's going to have many, many blood vessels, which is really important for the adipose connective tissue to receive nutrients that it can ultimately store as fats or lipids in the lipid droplet. And it's also important for the adipose connective tissue to release lipids or fats into the bloodstream, which again can be transported to other areas of the body and utilized as energy. And so, really, one of the most important characteristics to note about adipose connective tissue is that it is able to store energy by storing these lipid or fat or triglyceride molecules. And also, those lipids can serve to insulate the body to keep it warm due to its high adipocyte content.
Again, lots and lots of adipocyte storing lots of fat. And so it can also provide a cushion in order to serve some protective features as well. And so in terms of the functions, adipose tissue can have many different functions, but here we are highlighting 3 main functions of adipose tissue. The first is going to be to store nutrients and energy. Again, we know that these adipocytes have a relatively large lipid droplet that is storing fats or triglycerides, and so it can actually store those molecules for a long period of time, and then it can release components of fats into the bloodstream where, again, they can be transported to other areas of the body and utilized as energy when the body needs it.
Now another function of adipose tissue is that it is going to protect by absorbing shock. Again, it can provide some cushioning and that cushioning can help to provide a little bit of protection. And then the third function is that adipose connective tissue can serve to insulate the body and keep the body warm. And so we'll find that adipose connective tissue is actually found in the deep or deep to the layers of the skin. And so you can see it's, deep, it's gonna be found deep to the layers of the skin in the, what's known as the subcutaneous layer.
And so there it is actually going to help insulate the body and keep the body warm, preventing the body from losing too much heat. Now, the adipocytes or adipose tissue can actually be found in several different areas of the body. It cannot actually be found anywhere where areolar connective tissue is found. And so we know areolar connective tissue can be found all throughout the body. And so, adipose tissue can also be found all throughout the body, including the abdomen or the stomach area, if you will, around the eyes to provide cushioning and protection around the eyes and also around organs such as the kidneys and the heart, for example, which may need additional, you know, fat molecules for energy and even in the breasts, for example.
And so notice over here in our diagram, we are showing you how, in the top left, this is representing the skin and what you'll notice is that the outermost layers of the skin are made of epithelial tissue. Immediately beneath that, we talked about how areolar connective tissue is supporting the epithelial tissue, that's a type of loose connective tissue. Then this darker blue area that you can see here, that's actually representing dense irregular connective tissue, which we have not yet talked about. We'll talk about that later in our course, but you'll notice that this is really the skin, that layer there, and then notice that immediately beneath the skin, this yellow layer here, this is the adipose connective tissue, which is found in the subcutaneous layer. Again, deep to the outermost layers of the skin here or deep to these particular layers that I indicated of the skin.
Now you can also find adipose tissue all throughout the body, including around the eyes here. As you can see, these yellow areas represent adipose tissue, again, providing cushioning and protection for the eyes. And it can also be found in the abdomen and it's found in all people and it can also be found in regions of the body that are genetically controlled. And so, some people can accumulate fat in areas such as underneath their chin or in their back or, in their hips and their thighs and things like that. So it can have a genetic component to it in terms of where the adipose tissue tends to accumulate.
And so this year concludes our lesson on adipose connective tissue and we'll be able to get some practice applying these concepts and learn about 2 different types of adipose connective tissue as we move forward in our course. So I'll see you all in our next video.