| Movement of body parts depends
primarily on muscular tissue. The importance of this tissue is
emphasized by the fact that almost half the body's mass consists
of muscle. There are
three types of muscle fibers:
- Skeletal muscle primarily
involved in movement of bones (voluntary),
- Cardiac muscle enables the heart
to beat so that blood can be circulated (involuntary) and
- Visceral or smooth muscle
provides tone and movement of hollow tubes and organs such as
the intestine and uterus (involuntary).
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the structural
features of three general types of muscle cells and how each is
organized to form a contractile tissue that performs specific
types of work.
- Understand the structural and
functional attributes of connective tissues associated with
muscle and the myotendinous junction.
- Understand that skeletal muscle
contains different types of fibers.
- Understand the arrangement of
actin and myosin filaments in all three muscle types.
- Understand the arrangement and
roles of transverse tubules, sarcoplasmic reticulum,
mitochondria, and contractile filaments in the process of
contraction.
- Understand the locations and
roles of intercellular junctions in muscle.
- Understand the response of
muscle to injury and the regenerative capacity of the various
types of muscle.
Let's begin with
skeletal or striate muscle. |
