Muscle tissue
Consist of bundels of long slender cells that have the power to contract
Functions of muscle tissue
1. Provide movement of body and organs
2. Protection of organs
3. Beating of the heart for lymph and blood flow
4. Constriction of blood vessels , movement of intestine and emptying
bladder
5. Generate heat and maintain body temperature
Composition
Structural Unit: The muscle cell, also called a muscle fiber due to its
elongated shape.
Why the shape of the muscle is important ? because a greater
unidimensional contraction can be achieved by elongated cells rather than
globular cells
Classification of muscles
Muscles are classified based on morphology (structure) and function.
Striated muscles have alternating light and dark bands.
Striated muscles include:
o Skeletal muscle (attached to bones)
o Cardiac muscle (in the heart)
Unstriated muscle (no bands) is called smooth muscle.
Smooth muscle is found in the walls of internal organs (viscera) and is also called
visceral muscle.
Skeletal muscle: striated and voluntary
Smooth muscle: unstriated and involuntary
Cardiac muscle: striated and involuntary
Skeletal muscle
Most abundant tissue in the body.
Makes up about 40% of total body weight.
Commonly known as “the muscles”.
Glycogen in skeletal muscle helps form ATP for energy via glycolysis.
Muscle is supported at all levels by connective tissue.
The whole muscle is covered by a connective tissue sheath called the epimysium.
Skeletal muscle fibers
Skeletal muscle fibers do not branch.
They are elongated tubes, mostly cylindrical with rounded ends.
In transverse sections, fibers look rounded or ovoid.
Features : alternating light and dark bands (cross-striations) seen in longitudinal
section.
Characterstic of skeletal muscle
1. Large, cylindrical fibers with a big volume of cytoplasm (sarcoplasm).
2. Multinucleated cells with peripheral nuclei.
3. Cross-banding of light and dark lines seen along the fiber.
4. Regularly arranged contractile units.
5. Quick, vigorous, and voluntary contractions.
Functions of the skeletal muscle
1- Contraction
2- Supporting
3- Locomotion
4- Mastication
5- Phonation
6- Storage of glycogen
Skeletal muscle organization
Skeletal muscle is made of long, cylindrical muscle fibers lying in parallel.
Each fiber contains smaller cylindrical units called myofibrils.
Myofibrils are made of repeating units called sarcomeres.
Each sarcomere contains thick myosin and thin actin filaments.
Sarcomere is the functional unit of muscle contraction.
Muscle striations are due to alternating light (I-band) and dark (A-band) bands.
I-band is divided by the Z-line.
A-band is divided by a lighter H-zone.
M-line bisects the H-zone and connects adjacent thick filaments.
A sarcomere lies between two Z-lines.
Actin filaments attach to the Z-lines, myosin does not.
Myosin has globular heads that bind to actin at specific sites, forming cross-bridges.
Myoneural junction
Each skeletal muscle is supplied by nerves with motor and sensory fibers.
A motor unit consists of one motor neuron and the muscle fibers it supplies.
Motor nerve branches end on the muscle fiber at the motor end-plate or myoneural
junction.
The junction appears as a slightly raised plaque with accumulated nuclei.
The nerve loses its myelin sheath near the end-plate and ends in bulbous expansions.
Nerve endings lie in synaptic troughs (primary synaptic clefts) on the muscle
surface.
The sarcolemma invaginates to form secondary synaptic clefts (junctional folds).
Nerve and muscle membranes remain separate, not fused.
Nerve terminals contain many mitochondria and synaptic vesicles.
Synaptic vesicles hold acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter.
Cardiac Muscle
Found only in the heart (forms the myocardium).
Striated like skeletal muscle, but involuntary like smooth muscle.
Contractions are automatic and spontaneous, needing no external stimulus.
Characters of Cardiac Muscle:
1. Muscle fiber is a chain of cells (cardiomyocytes).
2. Fibers are narrow, ~120 µm in length and ~20 µm in width.
3. Fibers are elongated, branched, anastomosing; contain numerous mitochondria
and intercalated discs.
4. Intercalated discs connect adjacent cardiomyocytes end-to-end.
5. Cells have 1–2 central nuclei, elongated with blunt ends.
6. Contraction is involuntary, vigorous, and rhythmic.
7. Provides continuous, rhythmic contractility of the heart.
8. Same banding pattern as skeletal muscle is seen.
Smooth Muscle
Found in walls of blood vessels, hollow viscera (digestive, respiratory, reproductive
tracts), skin (arrector pili), iris, and ciliary body.
Controlled by the autonomic nervous system, which regulates contraction level.
Characters of Smooth Muscle:
1. Cells are spindle-shaped (fusiform) with one central, cigar-shaped nucleus.
2. Cell length varies: 20 µm in small vessels, up to 500–600 µm in pregnant uterus.
3. Fibers are packed to form sheets or bundles.
4. Has contractile proteins, but no cross-striations (unstriated).
5. Contraction is involuntary, slow, and long-lasting.
Histogenesis of Muscle
Muscle tissue originates from mesenchyme in the embryo.
Precursor muscle cells are rounded, noncontractile, with central nuclei.
As they develop, cells elongate and start producing:
o Myofilaments
o Creatine kinase
o Acetylcholine receptors
These cells become myoblasts (spindle-shaped, mitotic).
Myoblasts contain:
o Ribosomes
o Golgi complexes
o Short mitochondria
o Few myofilaments
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