Lecture #4 – Chapter 3

Muscle Tissue
Pages 97-101
Muscle Tissue

🞂 Function:
◦ contract (shorten) to produce movement

🞂 Three types:
1. Skeletal muscle
2. Cardiac muscle
3. Smooth muscle

© 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.

Skeletal Muscle Tissue

● Voluntary (conscious) control

● Attach to bones or skin
● Produce:
○ gross body movements
○ facial expressions

● Cell Characteristics:
○ Striations (stripes)
○ Multinucleate (more than one nucleus)
○ Long, cylindrical shape

© 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.

Figure 3.20a Type of muscle tissue and their common locations in the body.

Nuclei

Part of muscle
fiber

(a) Diagram: Skeletal muscle Photomicrograph: Skeletal muscle (195×)

Cardiac Muscle Tissue

● Involuntary control
● only in the heart
● Pumps blood through blood vessels
● Characteristics of cardiac muscle cells
○ Striations
○ One nucleus, short, branching cells
■ Look somewhat like bamboo
○ Intercalated discs:
■ Areas between cells which contain gap junctions to connect cells together so that the
impulse spreads across the heart synchronously

© 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.

Figure 3.20b Type of muscle tissue and their common locations in the body.

Intercalated
discs

Nucleu
s

(b) Diagram: Cardiac muscle Photomicrograph: Cardiac muscle (475×)

 Compare the two- note the differences

Skeletal Cardiac
Smooth Muscle Tissue

🞂 Involuntary control

🞂 Location: where constricting and enlarging is required

◦ walls of hollow organs
● Peristalsis: a wavelike activity that moves digested material through the small intestine
◦ blood vessels

🞂 Characteristics:
◦ No visible striations
◦ Single nucleus
◦ Spindle-shaped cells

© 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.

Figure 3.20c Type of muscle tissue and their common locations in the body.

Smooth
muscle cell

Nuclei

(c) Diagram: Smooth Photomicrograph: Sheet of smooth muscle (285×)

muscle