CH4.4 Muscle Tissue

Muscle Tissue

A primary tissue type composed of excitable cells that contract (shorten) to generate force for physical movement.

3 types: skeletal, cardiac, and smooth

Types of Muscle Tissue

skeletal muscle (striated, parallel fibers)

smooth muscle (spindle-shaped cells)

cardiac muscle (striated, branching cells).

Skeletal Muscle Tissue

Muscle tissue composed of long, cylindrical, multinucleate cells with obvious striations, under voluntary control, and located in skeletal muscles attached to bones, skin, or eyeballs.

Cardiac Muscle Tissue

Muscle tissue composed of short, branching, striated cells that are generally uninucleate (or one nucleus) and joined by intercalated discs (gap junctions, desmosomes), located in the heart wall under involuntary control.

Smooth Muscle Tissue

Muscle tissue composed of nonstriated, spindle-shaped cells with a single central nucleus, arranged in sheets in the walls of hollow organs under involuntary control

Intercalated Discs

Specialized junctional sites connecting cardiac muscle cells that contain gap junctions and desmosomes to allow coordinated contraction.

Striations

The prominent transverse light-and-dark banding pattern in skeletal and cardiac muscle produced by the organized arrangement of actin and myosin filaments.

Voluntary Control

Conscious control over muscle contraction, characteristic of skeletal muscle tissue.

Involuntary Control

Muscle contraction occurring automatically without conscious thought, characteristic of cardiac and smooth muscle tissues.

Multinucleate Cells

Cells containing multiple nuclei per individual cell, characteristic of long skeletal muscle fibers.

Uninucleate Cells

Cells containing a single nucleus, characteristic of smooth muscle cells and most cardiac muscle cells.

Spindle-Shaped Cells

Cells that are elongated and tapered at both ends with a single central nucleus, characteristic of smooth muscle.

Identify type of tissue.

Smooth Muscle Tissue; sheet-like arrangements of nonstriated, spindle-shaped cells with central oval nuclei.

Identify type of tissue.

Cardiac Muscle Tissue; branching, striated cells with single central nuclei and dark transverse intercalated discs.

Identify type of tissue.

Skeletal Muscle Tissue; large, cylindrical, unbranched fibers with distinct striations and multiple peripherally located nuclei.

Identify type of tissue.

Dense Regular Connective Tissue; A non-muscle tissue showing parallel wavy collagen fibers and flattened fibroblast nuclei, often mistaken for smooth muscle tissue.

The 3 muscle tissues: