Question

Which type of following connective tissue that is associated with the umbilical cord
(a)Areolar connective tissue
(b)Jelly-like connective tissue
(c)Adipose connective tissue
(d)Reticular connective tissue

Answer 1

The umbilical cord contains intracellular mucoid connective tissue. It provides support for the veins and arteries of the umbilical cord which is a clear slimy semi-liquid substance that collapses when taken out from the mother's body.

Complete answer:
A gelatinous substance within the umbilical cord is largely made up of mucopolysaccharides (hyaluronic acid and chondroitin sulfate) is called the Wharton's jelly (substantial gelatina funiculi umbilicalis) which acts as a mucous connective tissue derived from extraembryonic mesoderm that contains some fibroblasts and macrophages. It is rich in proteoglycans as it is a mucous connective tissue that protects and insulates umbilical blood vessels, also it changes when exposed to temperature, and within the umbilical cord structures, it collapses and thus after birth it provides a physiological clamping of the cord for an average of five minutes.

Additional information:

1. This term was first described by an English physician and anatomist Thomas Wharton (1614–1673) in his publication which was published in 1656 named Adenographia, or "The Description of the Glands of the Entire Body".
2. Several stem cell genes, including telomerase, are expressed by cells in Wharton's jelly and they can be extracted, cultured, and induced to differentiate into mature cell types such as neurons, and therefore it is a potential source of adult stem cells, often collected from cord blood.
3. Wharton’s jelly tissue transplantation has shown to be able to reduce traumatic brain injury and may have therapeutic potential in some recent studies.

So, the correct answer is, ‘Jelly-like connective tissue.’

Note: Wharton's jelly, which is the connective tissue of the human umbilical cord, is garnering increasing attention as a source of mesenchymal stromal cells and is now being employed in clinical trials. In the public sector, parents also wishing to store (bank) umbilical cord blood is increasingly being offered cord tissue, or the mesenchymal cells therein, as an additional banking service, but a little consensus was there on either how cells are extracted from the tissue or the anatomical descriptors of the tissue itself and thus it is proposed that on anatomical/histological structure, a cord nomenclature is based and its developmental origins within the context of providing a foundation for not only the much‐needed methodological transparency in reporting of both basic and clinical studies.