Advances in Ubiquitous Connective Tissue Architecture: Fascia, Dynamic movements and Perception in Living Structures

Dear Colleagues,

The concept of fascia is currently widely used in therapeutics and is based on an anatomical definition which is difficult to correspond to the reality observed, especially after explorations of the living human body.

In fact, there are two opposing concepts: one which is in the descriptive macroscopic anatomical tradition made on the cadaver or on the isolated fragment, and the other is the result of recent endoscopic observations of the living human body or the outcome of reflections on other scientific fields.

One defines the body in terms of separate organs connected by layers of more or less flexible tissue, visible in layers and called fascia or connective tissue. The other gives connective tissue or fascia a more important role, that of architecting the body, giving it its shape because it exists at all scales, from macroscopic to mesoscopic to microscopic as a huge network.

In this Special Issue, I propose a review of the current status of these two ways of perceiving the concept of fascia, firstly by making a definitive link between fascia, connective tissue, and the extracellular matrix, because inevitably words are different, but the observed reality brings them closer together. We will also be looking at the other sciences involved in the human body, cellular and extracellular biochemistry, embryology, thermodynamics, fluids, quantum physics, and complex systems.

I invite all those who wish to contribute to the clarification of this semantic difficulty to submit their articles (original research, reviews) to this Special Issue.

Dr. Jean Claude Guimberteau
Guest Editor

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