Elastic cartilage or yellow cartilage is a type of cartilage present in the outer ear and epiglottis. It contains elastic fiber networks and collagen fibers. The principal protein is elastin.
Elastic cartilage is histologically similar to hyaline cartilage but contains many yellow elastic fibers lying in a solid matrix. These fibers form bundles that appear dark under a microscope. These fibers give elastic cartilage great flexibility so that it is able to withstand repeated bending. The chondrocytes lie between the fibres. It is found in the epiglottis (part of the larynx) and the pinnae (the external ear flaps of many mammals including humans). Elastin fibers stain dark purple/black with Verhoeff stain.
Famous quotes containing the words elastic and/or cartilage:
“To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning. It matters not what the clocks say or the attitudes and labors of men. Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“An English family consists of a few persons, who, from youth to age, are found revolving within a few feet of each other, as if tied by some invisible ligature, tense as that cartilage which we have seen attaching the two Siamese.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)