Cross Section Of Smooth Muscle

Also the dark areas which are membrane associated are called dense plaques and are sites of filament attachment.

Cross section of smooth muscle. Spotting blood vessels is easy when smooth muscle is cut in cross section. Smooth muscle cross section. The area where the smooth muscle is cut longitudinally lengthwise the area where the smooth muscle is cut transversely cross section next previous.

Of course a smooth muscle cell nucleus will appear round in cross section rather than elongated. This is smooth muscle once again. When smooth muscle is cut in cross section you will see the smooth muscle cell nuclei as round purple staining masses within pink staining fibers.

An inner circular layer and an outer longitudinal layer. Note again the spindle shaped cells and centrally located nucleus in each cell. Recall that each smooth muscle fiber is a single cell each with its own nucleus.

So nuclei appear only in a similarly small proportion of the fibers cut by any single section. The smooth muscle in the intestine is arranged into two layers. In the upper right of the field the longitudinally oriented fibers are cut in cross section while the remainder of the field contains circularly oriented fibers sectioned longitudinally.

There are other nuclei too. Those between the masses of smooth muscle cytoplasm belong to fibroblasts or blood vessels. The arrangement of smooth muscle differs from organ to organ.

In each such cell the nucleus occupies only a small proportion of the cell s total length. A majority of fibers will have no visible nucleus i e it is out of the plane of section. Cross sectioned smooth muscle only a fraction of the fibers display nuclei.