Light microscopy of skeletal muscle fibres seen in longitudinal section. The alternating banding pattern represents a highly ordered assembly of contr

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Light microscopy of skeletal muscle fibres seen in longitudinal section. The alternating banding pattern represents a highly ordered assembly of contractile filaments called A bands (dark) and I bands (light). Z lines are in the middle of each I band and the interval between successive Z lines is the smallest unit of muscle contraction and is called a sarcomere. Each skeletal muscle fibre consists of hundreds or thousands of individual cells that have fused together. Hence a fibre has multiple nuclei; these are positioned at the periphery of the cell. Magnification x600 when printed at 10 cm.

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Size: 5234px × 3339px
Photo credit: © MICROSCAPE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: -, band, biological, biology, fiber, healthy, histological, histology, light, line, micrograph, microscopy, muscle, myofilament, normal, sarcomere, section, skeletal, striated, voluntary