1. The slide below shows a section of the trachea (windpipe). Rings of hyaline cartilage embedded within the walls of the trachea provide support and help to maintain an open airway. Hyaline cartilage is the most common form of cartilage in the body, making up part of the nose, connecting ribs to the sternum and covering the articulating surfaces of bones. When sectioned and stained, the matrix of hyaline cartilage takes on a light purple color. Cartilage-forming cells called chondroblasts produce this matrix, which consists of an amorphous ground substance heavily invested with collagen fibers. Chondrocytes (mature cartilage cells) can be seen singly or in groups within spaces in the matrix called lacunae. The surface of all cartilage (except for articular cartilage) is covered by a membrane of connective tissue fibers called the perichondrium. Although the perichondrium is well-vascularized, cartilage tissue proper is avascular, which means that oxygen and nutrients have to diffuse from blood vessels in the perichondrium to the chondrocytes within the cartilage proper.

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2. This image shows a dried section of compact bone. Like cartilage, bone cells (osteocytes) occupy spaces (lacunae) found within the dense matrix. A major difference, however, is that the matrix is calcified in bone, which endows bone with the property of hardness and the ability to resist compressive forces. This calcified matrix is deposited in layers called lamellae (singular = lamella) approximately 3-7 microns thick. The most common unit of structure in compact bone is the Haversian system or osteon. In each Haversian system, the lamellae are arranged concentrically around a central Haversian canal which houses nerves and blood vessels (unlike cartilage, bone is well supplied with blood vessels). The lacunae that house mature osteocytes in living bone appear as tapered, black spaces arranged around the concentric lamellae. Slender, branching tubules called canaliculi ("little canals") radiate out from the lacunae to form an extensive network of passageways that connect the bone cells to each other and to the blood supply in the Haversian canal.

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Additional information

These short answer questions lies from Biology.

The first and second questions discuss about hyaline cartilage in trachea and identifying components in the structure of bone.

Word limit 70