Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Muscle under the Microscope

The human body has 3 types of muscle in it:
  • Skeletal muscle
  • Smooth muscle
  • Cardiac muscle
Skeletal muscle covers the skeleton and gives the body shape. Skeletal muscle is the type of muscle that is most often thought of when the term "muscle" is used.

Muscle under the microscope captured with a PAXcam microscope camera.
Skeletal muscle under the microscope captured with a PAX-cam microscope camera.

Microscopy image of smooth muscle.Smooth muscle (shown at left) is found in walls of hollow organs such as the stomach. Smooth muscle tissue tends to demonstrate greater elasticity than other muscles. It is also found in the urinary tract and digestive tract.







Cardiac muscle is only found in the heart and it is different from the other muscles in the body because it does not get tired. Learn more about the human cardiac muscle here.

Microscopy image of human heart captured at 400x magnification.
Human cardiac muscle captured under the RB30 microscope with a 5mp microscope camera.


Each of the 3 types of muscles in the human body plays an important function in every day life. To learn more about healthy muscles and the roles they play in the human body visit NIH here.