MUSCLULAR TISSUES

The flesh of the body also bulk of wall (hollow organs)

Muscle cells elongate elements
Contraction  long axis of cell
Muscle cell is a MUSCLE FIBER
Protoplasm = SARCOPLASM
Cell membrane = SARCOLEMMA
Endoplasmic reticulum = SARCOPLAMIC
RETICULUM

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Contractile elements = MYOFIBRILS
Composed of MYOFILAMENTS

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 CLASSIFICATION
STRUCTURAL and FUNCTIONAL
Functional: Voluntary or Involuntary

Structural: Striated or Smooth

Combined:
Smooth involuntary muscle = smooth muscle
Striated involuntary muscle = cardiac muscle
Striated voluntary muscle = skeletal muscle 3
Muscle tissue – building material (smooth, cardiac)
Muscle tissue as an organ – skeletal muscle

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SMOOTH MUSCLE
Occurrence:
Occurrence
Walls hollow viscera, ducts, blood vessels
Skin, spleen, penis, broad ligament, visceral pleura
Shape:
Shape
Elongate, tapering spindles
Size:
Size
Length varies  18 to 200 μ
Pregnant uterus: 70 to 500 μ
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Diameter  3 to 8 μ
Structure:
Structure
Nucleus
Elongate (ovoid, cigar shaped) – fiber length
Midway fiber (longitudinal section)
Center (cross section)
Cytoplasm
Cell membrane indistinct
Homogeneous (light microscope)
EM shows myofilaments, organelles
Unspecialized sarcoplasm 6
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Smooth muscle
Fiber arrangement:
Solitary fibers
Loose network of fibers
Common functional unit = fascicle (bundle)
Economy of space  thick middle to thin end
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Isolated bundle
Erector pili muscles
Aggregated bundles (sheets)
Well defined layers: intestine, ductus deferens
Ill-defined layers: stomach, urinary bladder,
uterus

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Fibers surrounded with reticular and elastic net

Bundles/sheets surrounded with Areolar C.T.

One fibers pulls on another; one fascicle pulls on

another = unified action

Contraction is slow
Contraction nodes – if wave passes along fiber
Constant muscular contraction = tone 12
Blood supply:
moderate
Capillaries in C.T. surrounding fibers bundles
Capillaries do not invade bundles
Capillary network – follows axis of layer/fibers
Nerves:
Autonomic nerve fibers (sympathetic and
parasympathetic) add enteric ANS fibers for
digestive tube

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 SKELETAL MUSCLE
Voluntary/striated
Muscle fiber very long and thick, mutltinucleated
Fiber – generally cylindrical
Fibers gradually taper near ends
Bifurcation near end: tongue/ skin of face
Fiber – dozens to hundreds of myofibrils
Nuclei around periphery of cytoplasm

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Size:
Size
Length  1 t 40 mm
longer in nontapering muscles (sartorius)
Diameter  10 to 100 μ
Varies with muscle type and within muscle
Gluteus – coarse
Ocular muscles – fine
Increases with age, exercise, male
hormone
Adult fiber up to 10X’s that at birth 15
Nuclei:
Nuclei
Numerous – 35 per mm. (total depends on
length of fiber)
Sarcolemma:
Sarcolemma
May appear as a sharp outline
Elastic
Sarcoplasm:
Sarcoplasm
Undifferentiated between myofibrils
Amount varies with fiber type
Coarse fibrils – rich in sarcoplasm 16
Color categories
Red and White
Rabbit has both:
dark muscles rich in sarcoplasm
white muscles poor in sarcoplasm
Most mammals (including humans)
red and white fibers mingle in same
muscle

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Myofibrils:
Unbranched, parallel filaments
thickness varies: 1 and 2 μ
thinnest = 0.2 μ
Fibrils often bundled (Koelliker’s columns)
columns

In cross section Koelliker’s columns = 18

Skleletal muscle

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Myofibrils
Chains of long protein molecules
Actin
thin filament
extend into dark band
Myosin
thick filament
extend throughout light band

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Myofibrillar banding
~300 per mm.

Dark Band = Anisotropic (A disk)

disk
Strongly refractile – live
Doubly refractive (anisotropic) polarized
light
Middle of A disk is an H disk
H means helle (clear) also called
Hensen’s disk
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Actin absent
Myofibrillar banding
Light Band = Isotropic disk (I disk)
disk
Poorly refractile; pale (live)
Singly refractile (isotropic)
Only actin in I disk

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Myofibrillar banding
Other bands:
bands
Z membrane (Z for zwischenscheibe)
bisects I disk
web-like set of threads
actin inserts on Z disk
M line (M for mittelscheibe) bisects H disk
N line (N for nebenscheibe) crosses I disk
between Z and A

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Sarcomere
Functional unit of muscle
From Z disk to Z disk

See graphic next slide

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N
1 Sarcomere = ½ I + A + ½ I

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Functional Correlations:
Correlations
Skeletal muscle faster contracting than smooth
Fatigues easier; action less sustained
Smaller stimulus sets off contraction
Contraction consumes more energy
More red fibers = slower to fatigue (ocular,
respiratory and masticatory muscles

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White fibers – greater numbers
quicker contraction
more powerful contraction
richer in myofibrils
Fatigues sooner
Digital muscles, biceps

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Nucleus Endomysium
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Skeletal muscle
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Perimysium Endomysium36
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 Muscle as an organ
Aggregated muscle fibers
Groups of skeletal muscle fibers – fascicle
Groups can be large (coarse grain)
Gluteus maximum; deltoid
Fine grain (small bundles)
Ocular muscles
May not extend length of muscle
(common)

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C.T. surrounds fibers, fascicles, muscle
•Endomysium around muscle fiber (delicate C.T.)
•Perimysium around fascicle (fibrous)
•Epimysium around entire muscle (fibrous)

Fibers arrangement in muscle

entire length of muscle
attach one end of fascicle other terminates
freely
entirely within fascicle – does not attach to ends
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Blood vessels and Nerves
Blood vessels – follow connective tissue into muscle
rich capillary network in endomysium around
each fiber
Lymphatics – only in epimysium and perimysium

Nerves:
Sensory muscle spindles (muscle sensibility)
Motor activity – motor end plates

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MOTOR END PLATES
Motor fibers branch repeatedly
Terminal twig – midpoint muscle fiber
Axonal branch ends in “crow foot”
One to every muscle fiber

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 CARDIAC MUSCLE
Involuntary, striated
Heart, root of vessels from heart
Short columns, united into meshwork
Column composed on discrete cells
Cells arranged in single row
Cells (muscle fibers) branch
Endomysium pronounced only in mammals

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Cardiac muscle

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Fiber diameter: 9 to 22 μ
Nuclei
Ovoid (oriented to long axis)
Central position in cell
One per cell
Sarcolemma
Appears more delicate than in skeletal muscle

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Sarcoplasm
Abundant

Embeds nucleus extends beyond - spindle

Mitochondria abundant
Numerous fat droplets
Myofibrils
Distinct, less robust than skeletal muscle
Fibrillar striping like skeletal muscle – closer and
fainter
Koelliker’s columns & Cohnheim’s arears
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sometimes seen
Intercalated disk
Distinctive feature of cardiac muscle
blackened with silver nitrate
A tight junction between cells
Functional syncytium

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 nucleus CARDIAC MUSCLE

Intercalated disk branch 52

Purkinje fibers
Specialized cardiac muscle cells

Arranged in column

Thick fibers with abundant sarcoplasm

Fibrils scant and peripheral

= impulse conduction system

Close to endocardium
Most prominent system  atrio-ventricular
bundle 53
Blood vessels and Nerves
Blood capillaries 2X’s greater than in skeletal
muscle
Lymphatic capillaries – in endomysium
Autonomic nerves – simple brushes on cardiac
muscle fibers

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