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Concept
Striated muscle tissue
Summary
Striated muscle tissue is a muscle tissue that features repeating functional units called sarcomeres. The presence of sarcomeres manifests as a series of bands visible along the muscle fibers, which is responsible for the striated appearance observed in microscopic images of this tissue. There are two types of striated muscle:
Cardiac muscle (heart muscle)
Skeletal muscle (muscle attached to the skeleton)
Striated muscle tissue contains T-tubules which enables the release of calcium ions from the sarcoplasmic reticulum.
Skeletal muscle includes skeletal muscle fibers, blood vessels, nerve fibers, and connective tissue. Skeletal muscle is wrapped in epimysium, allowing structural integrity of the muscle despite contractions. The perimysium organizes the muscle fibers, which are encased in collagen and endomysium, into fascicles. Each muscle fiber contains sarcolemma, sarcoplasm, and sarcoplasmic reticulum. The functional unit of a muscle fiber is called a sarcomere.
Each muscle cell contains myofibrils composed of actin and myosin myofilaments repeated as a sarcomere. Many nuclei are present in each muscle cell placed at regular intervals beneath the sarcolemma.
Based on their contractile and metabolic phenotypes, skeletal muscle can be classified as slow-oxidative (Type I) or fast-oxidative (Type II).
Cardiac muscle lies between the epicardium and the endocardium in the heart. Cardiac muscle cells generally only contain one nucleus, located in the central region. They contain many mitochondria and myoglobin. Unlike skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle cells are unicellular. These cells are connected to each other by intercalated disks, which contain gap junctions and desmosomes.
Unlike skeletal and cardiac muscle tissue, smooth muscle tissue is not striated since there are no sarcomeres present. Skeletal muscles are attached to some component of the skeleton, and smooth muscle is found in hollow structures such as the walls of intestines or blood vessels.
Official source
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