Slanted muscles

The obliquely striated muscles represent a special case of the striated muscles . This type of muscle is widespread among invertebrates , since here the shortening of the muscle cannot be increased by lever arms. Representatives here include, for example, turbellarians , nematodes , molluscs (in particular cephalopods ) and annelids with their skin muscle tube. Analogous to the striated muscle , A and I bands can be distinguished, but here they form an acute angle to the longitudinal axis of the fibers. This creates the oblique stripes that are visible under the light microscope . Instead of the Z-disks , rod-shaped Z-elements can be found in the slanted muscle. Both the myosin and actin filaments slide past these and penetrate into the neighboring sarcomere . The Z-area therefore does not represent a barrier to the sliding of the filaments and thus enables the muscle to be shortened further. This type of muscle is therefore capable of very large changes in length.

See also

• striated muscles
• Smooth musculature
• Sarcomere

swell

• H. Penzlin: Textbook of animal physiology. 7th edition. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Elsevier, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-8274-0170-4 .