Meat Science

CARDIAC MUSCLE

• Cardiac muscle possesses the unique property of rhythmic contractility, which continues from early embryonic life until death.
• Cardiac muscle has properties that resemble characteristic properties of both skeletal and smooth muscle.
• It is also involuntary.
• The muscle fibres are rounded to irregular in shape and give off branches, which get mixed up with those of nearby fibres.
• The nucleus is placed in the centre of the fibre.
• Myofibrils depict striations similar to skeletal muscle.
• The sarcoplasm shows numerous and much more mitochondria than the skeletal or smooth muscle.
• The intercalated discs are present at the position of Z-lines.