In summary:

Connective tissue can include your joints, ligaments, tendons, bones, skin, blood vessels, vasculature, fat, and the lining of your gastrointestinal system, and pretty much throughout every part of your body!

Inherited Connective Tissue Disorders aka Heritable Connective Tissue Disorders (HCTDs)

These are conditions that individuals are born with and are caused either by a specific genetic change or by an unknown cause suspected to be genetic due to an observable inheritance pattern. Because connective tissue is involved in all systems in the body, the result of different genetic changes can vary dramatically between different individuals. Typically, these disorders cause pain, injury, or damage to tissue as a result of the connective tissue weakened by the disease causing genetic change.

Some connective tissue disorders cause hypermobility of the joints, cardiovascular risks, skin fragility, eye problems, hearing problems, or various other symptoms. It is important to differentiate which genetic changes are causing an individual’s syndrome in order to use the best approach for care and possible treatments.

Autoimmune Connective Tissue Disorders aka Acquired Connective Tissue Disorders

These conditions can have some genetic factors that increase an individual’s risk of developing the disorder, but they aren’t conditions that you predetermined at birth by genetics. They can be caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors and are often detectable by blood work that can test for different biomarkers or antibodies. However, there are many autoimmune conditions that are not easy to detect by blood and additional imaging and testing may be required before diagnosis is possible. The damage and symptoms caused from these conditions are a result of a person’s immune system having an abnormal self-attacking response (or autoimmune response) to their connective tissue. This differs from HCTDs above because the damage is due to the weakened structures rather than autoimmune damage.