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skeletal muscle

File:Blausen_0801_SkeletalMuscle.png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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skeletal muscle

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Also known as striated voluntary muscle, muscle, skeletal, skeletal striated muscle

one of three major muscle types

AI overview

Skeletal muscle is one of three major types of muscle in your body, and it's the kind that attaches to your bones and enables you movement—everything from lifting your arm to running. It matters because it's essential for all the physical activities you do throughout your day.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Key facts

Synonyms
Skeletal striated muscle, striated voluntary muscle
System
Muscular system
Latin
muscularis skeletalis
Mesh
D018482
Th
H2.00.05.2.00002

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

414,828 papers

via PubMed

Wikidata facts

Subclass of
muscle
Image
Blausen 0801 SkeletalMuscle.png
Show 4 more facts
topic's main category
Category:Skeletal muscle
Commons category
Skeletal muscle
native label
muscularis striatus skeletalis
on focus list of Wikimedia project
Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4
Sources (4)

via Wikidata · CC0

~40 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Skeletal muscle (commonly referred to as muscle) is one of the three types of vertebrate muscle tissue, the others being cardiac muscle and smooth muscle. They are part of the voluntary muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The skeletal muscle cells are much longer than in the other types of muscle tissue, and are also known as muscle fibers. The tissue of a skeletal muscle is striated – having a striped appearance due to the arrangement of the sarcomeres.

A skeletal muscle contains multiple fascicles – bundles of muscle fibers. Each individual fiber and each muscle is surrounded by a type of connective tissue layer of fascia. Muscle fibers are formed from the fusion of developmental myoblasts in a process known as myogenesis resulting in long multinucleated cells. In these cells, the nuclei, termed myonuclei, are located along the inside of the cell membrane. Muscle fibers also have multiple mitochondria to meet energy needs.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “skeletal muscle” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (12)