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| Normal skeletal muscle |
| Etiology N/A |
| Pathogenesis N/A, |
| Epidemiology N/A |
| General Gross Description Skeletal muscle is deep brown in color due to the presence of a pigmented protein called myoglobin. Grossly, skeletal muscles can be small (as in the muscles of the ear and eye) or large (gluteus maximus) or long (sartorius). |
| General Microscopic Description Skeletal muscle is in reality a syncytium. A single "muscle cell" is, in fact, composed of several hundred cells that have fused to give rise to a long fiber that can be several microns to several centimeters long. The longest muscle fibers in the human body are in the sartorius muscle of the thigh. In longitudinal sections, skeletal muscle fibres characteristically demonstrate alternating dark and light-staining bands, giving them a striated appearance. In cross section, skeletal muscle cells of the adult are polygonal, while those of children and certain muscles of face, even in adults, are roughly circular. Numerous nuclei are seen in the periphery closely applied to the plasma membrane also called the sarcolemma. The presence of nuclei in the center of the cell is abnormal and usually indicative of pathology. In cross section, the muscle cytoplasm is uniformly deeply eosinophilic. |
| Clinical Correlation N/A |
| References Bloom and Fawcett: A textbook of Histology. 12th Edition. Chapman & Hall. 1994. pp 266 |
| Normal skeletal muscle |
| Synopsis by: T.V.Rajan, M.D., Ph.D. (T13000M00100)[595] |
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