Muscle tissues

Muscle tissues
? Characteristics of Muscle tissues:

1. Excitability: Ability to receive and respond to a stimulus.
2. Contractility: Ability to shorten when stimulated.
3. Extensibility: Ability to be stretched or extended.
4. Elasticity: Ability of fiber to resume resting length after being stretched.

? Unique terms of muscle tissues:
1. Individual muscle cells are called muscle fibers.
2. The cytoplasm of muscle fibers is called sarcoplasm.
3. The muscle fiber plasma membrane is called the sarcolemma.
4. The smooth endoplasmic reticulum is called the sarcoplasmic reticulum.

? Some important terms of muscle tissues:
1. Endomysium: Reticular fibers surrounding each muscle fiber plus the external (basal) lamina produced by the muscle fiber.
2. Perimysium: Dense connective tissue surrounding groups of fibers and dividing the muscle into fascicles.
3. Epimysium: Dense connective tissue surrounding the entire muscle, blends with the deep fascicles and tendons.
4. Sarcomere: contractile unite of striated muscle fibers, seen in both skeletal and cardiac muscle fibers.
5. Neuromuscular junction (motor end plate): specialized synapse between the terminals of motor axon and the sarcolemma of muscle fibers.
6. Motor unit: specialized component consist of motor neuron and its axon.
7. Intercalated discs: junctional complexes unique to cardiac muscle which bind ends of fibers together and provide ionic coupling between fibers.
8. Myofibrils: contractile elements of striated muscle cells. They contain smaller contractile units called sarcomeres
9. Fascicles: layers of dense connective tissue that separates muscles