muscle (redirected from Muscle strain)

muscle, the contractile tissue that effects the movement of and within the body. Muscle tissue in the higher animals is classified as striated, smooth, or cardiac, according to its structure and function. Striated, or skeletal, muscle forms the bulk of the body's muscle tissue and gives the body its general shape. It is called striated because it appears striped, in alternating bands of light and dark, when viewed under a microscope, and animals have conscious control over most of their striate muscles. Smooth muscle, which lines most of the hollow organs of the body, is not under voluntary control, but is regulated by the autonomic nervous system. Smooth muscle fibers are spindle-shaped, not striated, and generally are arranged in dense sheets. Smooth muscle lines the blood vessels, hair follicles, urinary tract, digestive tract, and genital tract. Its speed of contraction is slower than that of striated muscle, but it can remain contracted longer. Cardiac muscle is striated like skeletal muscle but, like smooth muscle, is controlled involuntarily. It is found only in the heart, where it forms that organ's thick walls. The contractions of cardiac muscle are stimulated by a special clump of muscle tissue located on the heart (the pacemaker), although the rate of contractions is subject to regulation by the autonomic nervous system.

Muscle Contraction

Skeletal muscles are attached (with some exceptions, such as the muscles of the tongue and pharynx) to the skeleton by means of tendons, usually in pairs that pull in opposite directions, e.g., the biceps (flexor) and triceps (extensor) that move the forearm at the elbow. The means by which all types of muscles contract is thought to be generally the same, although muscles are classified as phasic, or fast twitch, and tonic, or slow twitch, to differentiate between the various lengths of time a muscle may require to move in response to stimulation. Striated muscle is usually considered phasic, while cardiac and smooth muscle are thought to be tonic.

Perhaps because its action is most varied, striated muscle has been studied most extensively. This type of muscle is composed of numerous cylindrically shaped bundles of cells, each enclosed in a sheath called the sarcolemma. Each muscle fiber contains several hundred to several thousand tightly packed strands called myofibrils that consist of alternating filaments of the protein substances actin and myosin. Actin and myosin interact before muscle contraction, forming the contractile material actomyosin.

The energy required for muscle contraction comes from the breakdown of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a substance that is present in the cells and is formed during cellular respiration. A muscle fiber is stimulated to contract by electrical impulses from the nervous system. The point of contact between nerve and muscle is the neuromuscular junction, where the chemical substance acetylcholine is secreted, initiating the changes that cause the muscle to contract. During resting states, some of the fibers in the musculature are maintained in a state of partial contraction, known as muscle tone. This permits muscles to contract quickly when stimulated without having to overcome the inertia of total relaxation.

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muscle

Major muscles of the human body. (1) frontalis, (2) occipitalis, (3) temporalis, (4) orbicularis of …

(credit: © Merriam-Webster Inc.)

Contractile tissue that produces motion for functions, including body movements, digestion, focusing, circulation, and body warmth. It can be classified as striated, cardiac, and smooth or as phasic and tonic (responding quickly or gradually to stimulation, respectively). Striated muscle, whose fibres appear striped under a microscope, is responsible for voluntary movement. Most of these muscles are phasic. They are attached to the skeleton and move the body by contracting in response to signals from the central nervous system; contraction is achieved by the sliding of thin filaments (of actin) between thick ones (of myosin); stretch receptors in the tissue provide feedback, allowing smooth motion and fine motor control. The branched fibres of cardiac muscle give it a netlike structure; contraction originates in the heart's muscle tissue itself with a signal from the natural pacemaker; vagus and sympathetic nerves control heart rate. Smooth muscle, the muscle of internal organs and blood vessels, is generally involuntary and tonic; its cells can operate either collectively or individually (in response to separate nerve endings) and have different shapes. Disorders of voluntary muscle cause weakening, atrophy, pain, and twitching. Some systemic diseases (e.g., dermatomyositis, polymyositis) can cause muscle inflammation. See also abdominal muscle; muscle tumour; muscular dystrophy; myasthenia gravis.

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muscle

1. a tissue composed of bundles of elongated cells capable of contraction and relaxation to produce movement in an organ or part

2. an organ composed of muscle tissue

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muscle [′məs·əl]

(anatomy)

A contractile organ composed of muscle tissue that changes in length and effects movement when stimulated.

(histology)

A tissue composed of cells containing contractile fibers; three types are smooth, cardiac, and skeletal.

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Muscle

The tissue in the body in which cellular contractility has become most apparent. Almost all forms of protoplasm exhibit some degree of contractility, but in muscle fibers specialization has led to the preeminence of this property. In vertebrates three major types of muscle are recognized: smooth, cardiac, and skeletal.

Smooth muscle

Smooth muscle, also designated visceral and sometimes involuntary, is the simplest type. These muscles consist of elongated fusiform cells which contain a central oval nucleus. The size of such fibers varies greatly, from a few micrometers up to 0.02 in. (0.5 mm) in length. These fibers contract relatively slowly and have the ability to maintain contraction for a long time. Smooth muscle forms the major contractile elements of the viscera, especially those of the respiratory and digestive tracts, and the blood vessels. Smooth muscle fibers in the skin regulate heat loss from the body. Those in the walls of various ducts and tubes in the body act to move the contents to their destinations, as in the biliary system, ureters, and reproductive tubes.

Smooth muscle is usually arranged in sheets or layers, commonly oriented in different directions. The major physiological properties of these muscles are their intrinsic ability to contract spontaneously and their dual regulation by the autonomic nerves of the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. See Autonomic nervous system

Cardiac muscle

Cardiac muscle has many properties in common with smooth muscle; for example, it is innervated by the autonomic system and retains the ability to contract spontaneously. Presumably, cardiac muscle evolved as a specialized type from the general smooth muscle of the circulatory vessels. Its rhythmic contraction begins early in embryonic development and continues until death. Variations in the rate of contraction are induced by autonomic regulation and by many other local and systemic factors.

The cardiac fiber, like smooth muscle, has a central nucleus, but the cell is elongated and not symmetrical. It is a syncytium, a multinuclear cell or a multicellular structure without cell walls. Histologically, cardiac muscle has cross-striations very similar to those of skeletal muscle, and dense transverse bands, the intercalated disks, which occur at short intervals. See Heart (vertebrate)

Skeletal muscle

Skeletal muscle is also called striated, somatic, and voluntary muscle, depending on whether the description is based on the appearance, the location, or the innervation. The individual cells or fibers are distinct from one another and vary greatly in size from over 6 in. (15 cm) in length to less than 0.04 in. (1 mm). These fibers do not ordinarily branch, and they are surrounded by a complex membrane, the sarcolemma. Within each fiber are many nuclei; thus it is actually a syncytium formed by the fusion of many precursor cells.

The transverse striations of skeletal muscle form a characteristic pattern of light and dark bands within which are narrower bands. These bands are dependent upon the arrangement of the two sets of sliding filaments and the connections between them. See Muscle proteins, Muscular system