University of Nairobi, Department of Human Anatomy 5th November, 2009.

Histology of Muscle (Skeletal, Smooth, Cardiac) and Nervous tissue.

Muscles are responsible for movement of the body and for change in the size and shape of
internal organs.
Basis of movement is the conversion of ATP to mechanical energy by myofilaments.
Muscle cells have excitable cell membrane important for propagation of initial stimuli
Almost all muscle tissues are of mesodermal origin.
In general a muscle has the following characteristics:
-irritability ability to respond to stimuli
-contractility ability to shorten
-extensibility ability to stretch
-elasticity abilty to regain its original length.
Skeletal Muscles
Location:
Muscles of axial and appendageal skeleton, visceral skeletal muscles
Organization
Muscle fibers
Run parallel and straight
Muscle tissue has many fasciculi
A fasciculus is a bundle of muscle fibers (muscle cells)
A myofiber is comprised of myofibrils
in cross-section, the myofibrils are arranged in polygonal structure
Myofibrils are bundles of myofilaments and consist of : Thick filaments myosin and
titan, and thin filaments are actins and tropomyosin troponin complex.
Connective Tissue
Endomysium:
loose connective tissue that is found between each muscle fiber
composed of collagenous and reticular fibers in which small capillaries and
neuronal branches course
Perimysium:
connective tissue + fat + blood vessels and nerves
group muscle fibers into fascicles
Epimysium:
dense connective tissue that surrounds muscle groups
large blood vessels and nerves penetrate this layer to reach muscle fibers. Each
muscle fibre is surrounded by a basement membrane

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I.

Characteristics

a. Skeletal muscle consists of very long tubular cells, which are also called muscle fibres.
Sartorius muscle up to 30 cm, stapedius muscle only about 1 mm. Their diameters vary
from 10 to 100 m.
b. Skeletal muscle fibres contain many peripherally placed nuclei.
Up to several hundred rather small nuclei with 1 or 2 nucleoli are located just beneath the
plasma membrane.
c. Skeletal muscle fibres show in many preparations characteristic cross-striations. It is
therefore also called striated muscle.
d. Skeletal muscle is innervated by the somatic nervous system.
e. Skeletal muscle makes up the voluntary muscle.
f. Contractile Apparatus
i.Responsible for striated appearance of the skeletal muscle
ii.Myofilaments
myosin and actin
iii.Contractile unit
sarcomere the portion of a myofibril between two adjacent Z lines.
iv.Striation alternate dark and light bands under microscope
A band: stained dark, are the myosin filaments
I band: stand light, are the actin filaments not overlapping myosin
H band: myosin not overlapping actin
Z disk: disk in the center of I band from which actin anchors and extends
M line: myomesin and C protein, function to anchor the myosin

b. Myotendinous Junction
i. Tendon:
1. lightly stained in H&E
2. homogeneous
3. nuclei are sparse and squished in between sheets of collagen
ii. Muscle:
1. striated
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2. more basophilic due to the abundance of rER

3. euchromatous nuclei (more darkly stained)
c. Excitation contraction coupling
T Tubule System: invagination of the sarcolemma. Exists with a pair of terminal
cisternae (bulbous ends of sarcoplasmic reticulum) to form a triad. (Remember a
diad?)
Ca2+ regulation of contraction
At the level of the thin filaments by binding to troponin and changing the
configuration of the thin filaments to expose myosin binding sites
Embryology of the skeletal muscles?
What are satellite cells? Clinical significance?
Motor unit
What is a motor neuron?
A motor neuron delivers the nervous stimulus that ultimately causes a muscle tissue to contract.
Define a motor unit? One motor neuron plus ALL of the skeletal muscle cells it stimulates is
called a motor unit. On average, a single motor neuron makes contact and thus stimulates about
150 individual skeletal muscle cells. All the cells contract and relax together, as a unit. The total
strength of any particular muscle is determined by the total number of motor units being used at
any given time.
How are motor units different for precise and gross movements? Muscles that control precise
body movements may have as few as 2-3 muscle cells per motor neuron (eye muscles), while
muscles that control gross body movements may have as many as 2,000 muscle cells per motor
neuron (gluteal muscles).
The neuromuscular junction
Describe the neuromuscular junction. Excitable cells (muscle and nerve) make contact and
communicate with one another at specialized regions called synapses.
At each synapses a small gap, called the synaptic cleft, separates the two excitable cells.
The first cell, the motor neuron, communicates with the second cell, the skeletal muscle cell,
across the synaptic cleft via neurotransmitters.
The type of synapse formed between the motor neuron and the skeletal muscle cell is called the
neuromuscular (myoneural) junction.
At the synapse, the motor neuron branches into clusters of bulb-shaped axon terminals (end
bulbs), each cluster forming a synapse with a group of muscle cells (motor unit).
The region of the muscle cell membrane that participates in the synapse with the axon terminal is
the motor end plate.

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Cardiac Muscle
Location:
Heart, base of great vessels (aorta and pulmonary arteries), pulmonary veins, superior and inferior
vena cava
Characteristics:

a. Cardiac muscle, the myocardium, consists of muscle cells, cardiomyocytes, with one
centrally placed nucleus. Nuclei are oval, rather pale and located centrally in the muscle
cell which is 10 - 15 m wide.
b. Cardiac muscle cells exhibit cross-striations. The contractile apparatus are similar to
skeletal muscles.
c. Cardiac muscle cells are short, narrow with branching
d. Cardiac muscle is innervated by the autonomic nervous system, which adjusts the force
generated by the muscle cells and the frequency of the heart beat.
e. Cardiac muscle is for these reasons also called involuntary striated muscle
f. Intercalated Disks: High specialized attachment sites between adjacent cardiac cells
1. Fascia adherens (adhering junctions)
The major constituent of the transverse component of the intercalated disk, and
is responsible for its staining in routing H&E preparations
2. Maculae adherents (desmosomes)
Bind the individual muscle cells to one another, help prevent the cells from
pulling apart under the strain of regular repetitive contractions, serves to
reinforce the adhering junctions
3. Gap junctions
Constitute the major structural element of the lateral component of the
intercalated disk, provides ionic continuity between adjacent cardiac muscle cells

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Smooth Muscle
I.
Location
a. Blood vessels tunica media, ducts, GI system, respiratory system, urogenital
system, etc
II.

Characteristics:
a. Shape:
i. Short, elongate fusiform cells
b. Nucleus:
i. Mononucleated, centrally placed
c. They lack T Tubule System:
Smooth muscle cells have a membrane system of sarcolemmal
invaginations that are analogous to T system to deliver Ca2+ to the
cytoplasm
d. Contractile Apparatus
i. Myofilaments:
1. actin and myosin
ii. Lack of striation
1. myofilaments are not regularly arranged, instead, they are
oriented obliquely to the long axis of the cell
2. actin filaments attach to sarcolemma via dense bodies, which
function as Z disk analogues
iii. Gap junctions are present for united contraction

III.

Ca2+ regulation of contraction

a. At the level of the thick filament
b. Ca2+-calmodulin complex leads to the phosphorylation of myosin, leading to
contraction

Muscle Type

Skeletal

Smooth

Cardiac

Location

Muscles of
skeleton, visceral
striated (tongue,
esophagus,
diagraphm)

Heart (duh!),
Superior and
inferior vena cava,
and pulmonary
veins

Nucleus

Polynucleated,
peripheral

Viscera (GI
system,
respiratory
system, etc),
blood vessels,
organs
Single central

Type of
Innervation
Striation

Voluntary

Involuntary

Involuntary

Yes

No

Yes

Shape

Long and elongate

Short and elongate

Short with
branching

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Single central

Nervous tissue
Made up of neurons and neuroglial cells
Neurons transmit impulses whereas the neuroglial cells are involved with:
Support, nutrition and defense of the nervous system

A nerve is made up of many nerve cell fibers (neurons) bound together by connective
tissue.
A sheath of dense connective tissue, the epineurium surrounds the nerve.
This sheath penetrates the nerve to form the perineurium which surrounds bundles of
nerve fibers.
Blood vessels of various sizes can be seen in the epineurium.
The endoneurium, which consists of a thin layer of loose connective tissue, surrounds the
individual nerve fibers
Neurones have two fundamental properties:
Excitability can react to stimulus by generation of an impulse
Cunductivity impulse generated can be propagated
Structure of a neurone
Most neurones consist of three parts:
1. Dendrites: multiple elongated processes this is the main receptive domain.
2. Cell body/perikaryon- trophic centre. Contain granules called Nissl bodies found
in the cytoplasm of the cell body. Synthesis of neurotransmitters, proteins, trophic
factors. Its an integration domain.
3. Axon generates/conducts impulses to other nerve cells. Forms the transmission
domain.
Distal portion of the axon forms the terminal arborization. Each branch terminates
in a dilatation called boutons.

Define the following terms

Axon hillock short region where the axon gets origin from the perikaryon
Axolemma plasma membrane that covers the axon
Axoplasm the extension of the neuron cytoplasm into the axon
Initial segment the point between the axon hillock and point at which myelination
begins.
Transport in the axon, anterograde and retrograde.

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Classification of neurons
Neurons are classified both structurally and functionally.
Structural Classification Neurons are grouped structurally according to the number of
processes extending from their cell body.
Three major neuron groups make up this classification: multipolar (polar = end, pole),
bipolar and pseudounipolar neurons.
Multipolar Neurons (3+ processes)
They are the most common neuron type in humans (more than 99% of neurons
belong to this class) and the major neuron type in the CNS
Bipolar Neurons
Bipolar neurons are spindle-shaped, with a dendrite at one end and an axon at the
other . An example can be found in the light-sensitive retina of the eye.
Pseudounipolar Neurons
Sensory neurons have only a single process or fibre which divides close to the cell
body into two main branches (axon and dendrite). Because of their structure they
are often referred to as unipolar neurons.

Functional classification of neurons

Sensory neurons
Motor neurons
Interneurons
Generation of a nerve impulse
At rest, the membrane of nerve cells is positively charged on the outside and negatively charged
on the inside. This is called resting potential.
When activated ion channels open and there is differential efflux/influx of ions creating an
electrical potential (an impulse)

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Neuroglial cells
They are not excitable. Five main types:
Cell type

Function

Astrocytes

Nutritional and physical support

Scarring in case of neuronal damage
Regulates cerebral blood flow

Microglial cells

Belong to MPS in the CNS

Epindymal cells

Line ventricles and provide physical support

Oligodendrocytes

Myelination in the CNS

Schwann cells

Myelination in the PNS

Synapses
Communication between neurons. Each synapse has:
Presynaaptic area
Synaptic cleft
Post synaptic area. Electrical impulse is carried via chemical messengers in the synapse then
reconverted to electrical impulse in the postsynaptic area.

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