Skeletal Muscle , Cardiac Muscle and Smooth Muscle | Characteristics and Differences

Skeletal muscle is one of three major muscle types, the others being cardiac muscle and smooth muscle. It is a form of striated muscle tissue, which is under the voluntary control of the somatic nervous system. Most skeletal muscles are attached to bones by bundles of collagen fibers known as tendons.

Cardiac muscle (heart muscle) is one of the three main types of muscle in vertebrates. It is involuntary: a person cannot control it consciously. Also, it is a striped muscle in the walls of the heart. It makes up the tissue called the myocardium. The other types of muscle are the skeletal and smooth muscle.

Smooth muscle is an involuntary non-striated muscle. It is divided into two subgroups; the single-unit (unitary) and multiunit smooth muscle. Within single-unit cells, the whole bundle or sheet contracts as a syncytium.

Smooth muscle cells are found in the walls of hollow organs, including the stomach, intestines, urinary bladder and uterus, and in the walls of passageways, such as the arteries and veins of the circulatory system, and the tracts of the respiratory, urinary, and reproductive systems.