Short notes on the structure of a muscle fibre

The muscle tissue is made up of elongated thin cells called muscle fibres and they are held together by areolar tissue. There is no intercellular tis­sues between the muscle cells and there is also no matrix. The cytoplasm of muscle fibres is called sarcoplasm. Embedded in the cytoplasm are a number of long, fine, parallely arranged protein fibres called Myofibrils. These are arranged along the long axis of the fiber.

The spaces between the myofirbrils are occupied by a large number of mitochondria (sarco- somes) and glycogen granules. These granules provide the energy neces­sary for contraction. In some instances the muscle fibres may be bounded by a special membrane called sarcolemma. The muscle fibres may have one too many nuclei.