Histology of skeletal cardiac

and smooth muscle

First lecture
 Learning objectives
 Outline the histological features of
skeletal, smooth and cardiac muscle with
the help of microscopic images.
Skeletal muscle
 Skeletal muscle
 An entire skeletal muscle is enclosed
within a thick layer of dense connective
tissue called the epimysium that is
continuous with fascia and the tendon
binding muscle to bone.
 Perimysium
 is a thin connective tissue layer that
immediately surrounds each bundle of
muscle fibers termed a fascicle .
 Nerves, blood vessels, and lymphatics
penetrate the perimysium to supply each
fascicle.
 Endomysium
 Surrounds the external lamina of individual
muscle fibers.
Organization Within Muscle Fibers

 On light microscope –striated appearance

 Cylindrical in shape
 Longitudinally sectioned skeletal muscle
fibers show cross-striations of alternating
light and dark bands .
 skeletal muscle structure
• Sarcolemma-cell • Sarcoplasm –
membrane cytoplasm
• Nuclei-multi • Filled with myofibrils
nucleated • Golgi complex
• Ovoid in shape • Mitochondria
• Peripherally located • E reticulum

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 Skeletal muscle fiber
 Cross striations -light and dark band
 The dark bands are called A bands
(anisotropic or birefringent in polarized
light microscopy)
 the light bands are called I bands
(isotropic, do not alter polarized light).
 I band
 In the TEM , each I band is seen to be
bisected by a dark transverse line, the Z
disc (Ger.zwischen, between).
 The repetitive functional subunit of the
contractile apparatus, the sarcomere,
extends from Z disc to Z disc .
 A BAND

Each A BAND has lighter central area known

as H zone.
H zone is bisected by M line.
 Myo filaments
Myo fibrils are compose of myofilaments.
 Thick
 Thin
 A and I bands
 The A and I banding pattern in sarcomeres
is due mainly to the regular arrangement
of thick and thin myofilaments
I bands are lighter why
 I bands, each bisected by a Z disc, consist
of the portions of the thin filaments that do
not overlap the thick filaments (which is
why I bands stain more lightly. .
 Thick myosin filaments
 The thick myosin filaments are 1.6 μm
long and 15 nm wide;
 they occupy the A band at the middle
region of the sarcomere.
 Heavy and light chains
 Myosin heavy chain
Myosin is a large complex (~500 kDa) with
two identical heavy chains and two pairs of
light chains.
Myosin heavy chains are thin, rodlike motor
proteins (150 nm long and 2-3nm thick)
twisted together as myosin tails .
 Myosin light chains
 Globular projections containing the four myosin
light chains form a head at one end of each
heavy chain.
The myosin heads bind both
1. Actin: forming transient cross bridges between
the thick and thin filaments,
Actin binding capacity of head-fundamental
importance for muscle contraction
2. ATP: catalyzing energy release (has ATPase
also).
 Thin filaments
 Are composed of Actin filaments,troponin
and tropomyosin
 Actin filaments exist as F-actin polymers in
form of double helix composed of Gactin
polymers.
 Tropomyosin
 Tropomyosin, a 40-nm-long coil of two
polypeptide chains located in the groove
between the F-actin helix.
 Troponin, a complex of three subunits:
TnT, which attaches to tropomyosin;
 TnC, which binds Ca2+;
 TnI, which regulates the actin-myosin
interaction.
 TnI binds to actin and inhibits actin myosin
interaction
 TnT binds Tropoinin to Tropomyosin
 TnC binds calcium exposing blocked sites
on actin filaments which allows globular
heads of myosin to form cross bridges with
actin molecules.
 Transverse tubule sytem
 Invaginations of sarcolemma around
muscle fiber.
 Undergo branching lie between terminal
 Cisterna od sarcoplasmic reticulumto form
 Triads at A-I junction.
 Srcoplasmic reticuum
 Specialized type of endoplasmic reticulum-
skeletal muscle.
 E/M shows SR exists as network of
tubules or cisterna
 T-tubules course chiefly in longitudinal
direction.
Sarcoplasmic Reticulum & Transverse
Tubule System

 In skeletal muscle fibers the smooth ER,

or sarcoplasmic reticulum, is specialized
for Ca2+ sequestration.
 To trigger Ca2+ release from sarcoplasmic
reticulum throughout the fiber
simultaneously and cause uniform
contraction of all myofibrils
 When the membrane depolarization ends,
the sarcoplasmic reticulum pumps Ca2+
back into the cisternae, ending contractile
activity.
 Together, the triad components make up a
signaling apparatus for converting
repeated cell membrane depolarizations
into spikes of free, cytoplasmic Ca2+ that
trigger contraction
Intercalated
disc__________
Cardiac muscle
 Features

• Same arrangement of thick & thin filaments as skeletal

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 Differences b/w skeletal and
cardiac
• The T tubule system and sarcoplasmic reticulum, however, are not as
regularly arranged in the cardiac myocytes. The T tubules are more
numerous and larger in ventricular muscle than in skeletal muscle.
• The sarcoplasmic reticulum is not as well developed and wanders
irregularly through the myofilaments. As a consequence, discrete
myofibrillar bundles are not present.
• Triads are not common in cardiac cells, because the T tubules are
generally associated with only one lateral expansion of sarcoplasmic
reticulum cisternae. Thus, heart muscle characteristically possesses
diads composed of one T tubule and one sarcoplasmic reticulum
cisterna.

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 Features..
 Numerous mitochondria, which occupy
40% or more of the cytoplasmic volume ,
reflecting the need for continuous aerobic
metabolism in heart muscle.
 By comparison, only about 2% of skeletal
muscle fiber is occupied by mitochondria.
Fatty acids, transported to cardiac muscle
cells by lipoproteins, are the major fuel of
the heart.
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 Appearance of Cardiac Muscle

• Striated muscle containing thick & thin filaments

• T tubules located at Z discs
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SMOOTH MUSCLE

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Microscopic Anatomy of Smooth Muscle

• Small, involuntary muscle cell -- tapering at ends

• Single, oval, centrally located nucleus
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 Features
• Smooth muscle cells are fusiform, ie, they
are largest at their midpoints and taper
toward their ends.

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 MICROSCOPIC Features

• Each cell has a single nucleus located in the center

of the broadest part of the cell.
• To achieve the tightest packing, the narrow part of
one cell lies adjacent to the broad parts of
neighboring cells.
• Such an arrangement viewed in cross section
shows a range of diameters, with only the largest
profiles containing a nucleus .

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• They may range in size from 20 m in small
blood vessels to 500 m in the pregnant
uterus. During pregnancy, uterine smooth
muscle cells undergo a marked increase in
size and number.

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 Smooth muscle

6 major locations:
1. inside the eye 2. walls of vessels 3. respiratory tubes
4. digestive tubes 5. urinary organs 6. reproductive organs
 A rudimentary sarcoplasmic reticulum is present;
it consists of a closed system of membranes,
similar to the sarcoplasmic reticulum of striated
muscle.

 T tubules are not present in smooth muscle

cells.
 Dense bodies
 Desmin (skeletin) has been identified as the major protein of intermediate
filaments in all smooth muscles, and vimentin is an additional component in
vascular smooth muscle.
 Two types of dense bodies appear in smooth muscle cells. One is
membrane associated; the other is cytoplasmic. Both contain -actinin and
are thus similar to the Z lines of striated muscles. Both thin and intermediate
filaments insert into dense bodies that transmit contractile force to adjacent
smooth muscle cells and their surrounding network of reticular fibers.
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 The degree of innervation in a particular
bundle of smooth muscle depends on the
function and the size of that muscle.
Elaborate neuromuscular junctions such
as those in skeletal muscle are not present
in smooth muscle.
SMOOTH AND SKELETAL