1 Introduction 1. 1 General Remarks The connective and supportive tissues constitute a considerable amount of the biomass in human and animal organisms. Characteristically, the osseous, car- laginous, and ?brous tissues each connect a vital part (cells) with a non-vital part, i. e., extracellular matrix (ECM). The composition of the ECM constitutes the mechanical qualities of the respective tissue. The functional role of the bone and cartilage tissues is exhaustively discussed in the relevant literature. Whereas bone tissue provides the static and dynamic stability of the system as a whole,...