Muscular tissue

General characteristics Skeletal muscle

• Elongated and oriented parallel to its • Striated and voluntary
direction of action • Forms the main bulk of the body
• Cell membrane is known as musculature
sarcolemma • Generally attached to the bone except
• Nucleus is elongated and is parallel to for the intrinsic muscles of the
the long axis of the muscle fiber tongue, upper esophagus and some
• Cytoplasm is known as sarcoplasm of the facial expression muscles
o strongly acidophilic due to its
Skeletal muscle fiber
myoglobin pigment
• Contractility is its fundamental • Long cylindrical and multinucleated
property cells
o contraction generates heat • 10-100 u
functions of muscles • Myoblasts; satellite cells
• Muscle fibers do not branch
• movements • On cross-section
• locomotion o fibers appear almost equal in
• maintenance of body posture size
o nuclei are located at the
Functional classification
periphery or beneath the
• Voluntary sarcolemma and may be more
o under the control of the CNS than 2
• Involuntary
Connective tissue covering
o contract in response to
stimulation of the autonomic • Epimysium
nervous system o the dense CT surrounding the
whole muscle
Structural classification
• Perimysium
• Striated o the thin septa that extend to
o presence of transverse or surround each fascicle
cross-striations known as • Endomysium
dark and light bands o the delicate reticulum
• Smooth surrounding individual fibers
o no cross-striations but with
Sarcomere
longitudinal striations
• Structural and functional unit of the
Histological classification
skeletal muscle
• Skeletal muscles • The segments of myofibrils between
• Cardiac muscles successive Z-lines
• Smooth muscles • Includes an A-band and half of the 2
contiguous I-bands
Actin (thin) myofilaments Types of skeletal muscle fibers

• free ends are attached to the Z-line, • Type I or slow, red oxidative fibers
then towards the A-band up to the o Many mitochondria; abundant
edge of the H-zone myoglobin
• Composed of F-actin, tropomyosin o Oxidative phosphorylation of
and troponin complex (TnT, TnC, TnI) fatty acids
• Attached to the α-actinin of the Z disc o For slow, continuous
contraction for prolonged
Myosin (thick) myofilaments periods such as postural
• occupy the entire A-band muscles at the back
• Bound to proteins of M line and to the • Type IIa or fast, intermediate
Z disc by a large protein called titin oxidative-glycolytic fibers
(with spring-like domains) o Many mitochondria,
• Consists of many myosin bundled myoglobin and glycogen
together along their rod-like tails with o Both oxidative and anaerobic
their heads exposed and directed glycolysis
towards thin filaments o For rapid contraction and
short burst of activity such as
in athletes
Sliding filament mechanism • Type IIb or fast, white glycolytic fibers

• Actin filaments slide past the myosin

filaments towards the center of the Cardiac muscle
sarcomere
• H zone becomes narrow and may be • Striated and involuntary
obliterated • Thickest layer of the heart, the
• I-band also becomes narrow myocardium
• A-band remains constant during • Branching and anastomosing fiber
relaxation and contraction • Generally have single nucleus per cell
o Ovoid nucleus
o nucleus are centrally located
Sarcoplasmic reticulum unlike the skeletal muscle
• Cross-section show moderate
• Corresponds to the endoplasmic variation in the size of muscle fibers
reticulum of other cell types • Each cell is joined end to end by a
• Consists of membrane-bound surface specialization called
sarcotubules that forms a canalicular intercalated discs
network around each myofibril • Intercalated discs functions
• Devoid of ribosomes o maintain firm cohesion of
• Site of sequestration of calcium successive cellular units of
during muscle relaxation and for the myocardium
release into the sarcoplasm of free o transmits the pull of one
calcium ions that trigger contraction contractile unit to the next
in response to a nerve impulse
 cellular unit along the long • T tubules are absent
axis of the myofibrils • During contraction the borders of the
• Fine longitudinal striations and cell become scalloped and the
transverse striations are also found nucleus distorted
• Sarcomere is also the structural and • When in bundles or in extensive layers
functional unit o individual fibers are off set
• The component fibers have inherent such that the wide portion of
automicity and rhythmicity the cells are adjacent to the
• Myofibrils closely resemble those of thin tapering end of
the skeletal muscle neighboring cells
• Sarcoplasmic reticulum is present but • So in transverse sections
not as highly developed as skeletal o smooth muscle appear as a
muscle mosaic of irregular polygons
of varying sizes
Purkinje myocytes
o with nuclei found only in larger
• Modified cardiac muscle fibers that cross-sections
are specialized for impulse 3 kinds of filaments
conduction
• Located in the • thin actin filaments, 4-8 nm in
o Sinoatrial node at the junction diameter
of the superior vena cava with o F-actin and calmodulin insert
the right atrium into dense bodies (contain α-
o Atrioventricular node at the actinin)
lower part of the interatrial • thicker myosin filaments, 15 nm
septum • intermediate filaments, 10 nm,
o Internodal tracts and bundle generally are desmin
of His

Location of smooth muscles

Smooth muscle
• Walls of the digestive tract from the
• Non-striated and involuntary middle of the esophagus to the inner
• Capable of slow, sustained, resistant anal sphincter
to fatigue contraction • Walls of the respiratory tract from the
• Muscle fiber is the structural and trachea to the alveolar ducts
functional unit • Walls of blood vessels
• Walls of ducts of glands
Smooth muscle fiber
• Arrector pili muscle found in the hair
• Fusiform or spindle-shaped bulb of skin
• Elongated nucleus situated in their • Areola of mammary glands
widest central portion • Subcutaneous tissue of the scrotum
• Vary in their length in the different • Urinary bladder
organs (20 u – 500 u) • Uterus
• Rudimentary sarcoplasmic reticulum