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Histology: Cardiac and Smooth Muscle

Author: Aaron Mullally

Overview of Cardiac and Smooth Muscle

Cardiac muscle
- in comparison to skeletal myocytes cardiac myocytes are short in length
- cardiac myocytes are not tightly packed, there are lots of gaps in between the cells
- cardiac myocytes have one nuclues per cell unlike skeletal myocytes which are multinucleated
- cardiac muscle tissue has interclated disks connecting the myocytes together
- cardiac muscle is involuntary, we do not consciously control it
- cardiac muscle is striated in appearance
- cardiac muscle is used by the heart to pump blood

Smooth muscle
- called smooth muscle because it lacks striations, just one solid color
- short cells (fusiform) that have just one nucleus
- this type of muscle is arranged in sheets
- smooth muscle is involuntary, we do not consciously control it
- smooth muscle is mainly found within hollow organs and is used to control the diameter of these organs
- it is found within blood vessels, the GI tract, iris of the eye, the uterus, our airways (bronchioles) and is used to control the openings of sphincters within the body
 

Source: The mind of Aaron

Histology of Cardiac and Skeletal Muscle

This is an overview about the histology of cardiac and smooth muscle with images

Source: Self made with images from Marieb and http://www.udel.edu/biology/Wags/histopage/colorpage/colorpage.htm

Cardiac and Smooth Muscle Images

Here are some images for you to study. When looking at the cardiac muscle I would recommend trying to find as many intercalated disks as you can. This will help you practice identifying them