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

A special issue of Life (ISSN 2075-1729). This special issue belongs to the section "Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 November 2025 | Viewed by 1062

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Jean Claude Guimberteau

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Surgeon Aquitaine Hand and Upper Extremity Institute, Pessac-Bordeaux, France
Interests: organization of living matter; living sliding mechanical behavior

Special Issue Information

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

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Life is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • fascia
  • connective tissue
  • fibrillar network
  • microvolumes
  • collagen
  • cell microenvironment
  • force absorption system

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

26 pages, 3788 KiB  
Article
New Perspectives on the Organization of Living Tissue and the Ongoing Connective Tissue/Fascia Nomenclature Debate, as Revealed by Intra-Tissue Endoscopy That Provides Real-Time Images During Surgical Procedures
by Jean Claude Guimberteau, Elias T. Sawaya and Colin Armstrong
Life 2025, 15(5), 791; https://doi.org/10.3390/life15050791 - 15 May 2025
Viewed by 909
Abstract
Intra-tissue endoscopy, providing real-time images at all scales, from macroscopic to microscopic, from inside living tissue during surgical procedures, has revealed the existence of a body-wide fibrillar architecture that extends from the surface of the skin to the cell. Different types of cells [...] Read more.
Intra-tissue endoscopy, providing real-time images at all scales, from macroscopic to microscopic, from inside living tissue during surgical procedures, has revealed the existence of a body-wide fibrillar architecture that extends from the surface of the skin to the cell. Different types of cells are housed within this fibrillar architecture and gather together to carry out specific functions. This challenges the commonly accepted notion of the organization of living matter that associates separate organs with connective tissue packaging. We are thus confronted with the global nature of the living human body and its vital processes. This paper sets out to describe the architecture of this fibrillar network which could be assimilated with the fascial tissue and which attributes a more constitutive role to connective tissue. It also demonstrates how movements within this fibrillar network can occur with minimal local distortion while maintaining tissue continuity. The authors propose that the gliding of tissues can be explained by the existence of a highly adaptable fibrillar network that enables the gliding of distinct anatomical structures such as tendons and muscles, without any dynamic influence on the surrounding tissues. The authors propose a new model of tissue movement based on the observation of a ubiquitous dynamic polyhedric fibrillar network with an apparently dispersed and complex pattern of organization, that forms fluid-filled microvolumes, and is found everywhere in the human body. Furthermore, this fibrillar network appears to act as a force absorption system, in addition to providing a framework or scaffolding for cells throughout the body. Observation during intra-tissue endoscopy suggests that this fundamental architectural organization extends into the extracellular matrix that is the natural environment of all cells in the living body, regardless of their size, location or specific function. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Ubiquitous Connective Tissue Architecture: Fascia, Dynamic movements and Perception in Living Structures)
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