LPT 321: Meat Science (1+1)

Histological Structure - Muscle Fibre

HISTOLOGICAL STRUCTURE - MYOFIBRE

• Muscle fibres, or muscle cells are long un-branched thread like multinucleate cells that taper slightly at both ends.
• Muscles fibres may attain the length of many centimetres though only rarely do they extend the entire length of a muscle as in the case of sartorius muscles, but is only about 10-100 µm in diameter.
• Invaginations of sarcolemma, referred to as transverse tubules or T system form a network of tubules and run along the entire length and around the entire circumference of the fibre.
• Motor nerve fibre endings terminate on invaginations of the sarcolemma at the myoneural junction.
• The structures present at the myoneural junction form a small mound on the surface of the muscles fibre.
• The entire complex is called motor end plate.