- [Voiceover] This slide is your elastic cartilage. The current magnification is 100X total magnification. What we're looking for are going to be the cells and the features that help distinguish this as elastic cartilage. So it's this area right here that is your elastic cartilage. As we zoom in, you can see a little better detail of the actual elastic cartilage. Now, the entire window here is filled with elastic cartilage. We can see the cells which are the chondrocytes. So, here are the chondrocytes, here's one, here's one. And these chondrocytes are within lacunae. The lacunae is this outside structure that is housing the cells. So this outside structure is lacunae. Now you can kind of think of the chondrocytes as being at home in lacunae. Lacunae can be their house. But the key thing is remember, the chondrocytes are under house arrest. They can't leave lacunae. So this lacunae, this structure, is keeping the chondrocytes within. Now, how do we distinguish this elastic cartilage from hyaline cartilage and from fiber cartilage? Well, hyaline cartilage, the matrix, this purplish area is a solid mist. You really can't see any fibers. In fiber cartilage, the cells are a little more spaced apart, and you can see the cells are more of a kind of elongated pattern. In this elastic cartilage, the cells are more densely packed, and you can see the elastic fibers. So, here's a fiber for instance. You can see these fibers right here. We can move down a little bit. You can see all these fibers coming in to the matrix. So all these fibers here coming through help to identify this as elastic cartilage. So, to identify elastic cartilage, you're looking for the elastic fibers. Seeing the fibers in the matrix is the giveaway for elastic cartilage.