Medical research

An elusive mechanism of wasting syndrome cachexia revealed

Researchers from the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Koc University in Turkey and the Pole of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Nutrition, Institute of Experimental and Clinical Research at Université Catholique ...

Medical research

A reference tissue atlas for the human kidney

A team of researchers including Jens Hansen, Rachel Sealfon, Rajastree Menon, and colleagues of the Kidney Precision Medicine Project, built on an existing specific human kidney tissue atlas relevant to health care at single-cell ...

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Muscle

Muscle (from Latin musculus, diminutive of mus "mouse") is the contractile tissue of the body and is derived from the mesodermal layer of embryonic germ cells. Muscle cells contain contractile filaments that move past each other and change the size of the cell. They are classified as skeletal, cardiac, or smooth muscles. Their function is to produce force and cause motion. Muscles can cause either locomotion of the organism itself or movement of internal organs. Cardiac and smooth muscle contraction occurs without conscious thought and is necessary for survival. Examples are the contraction of the heart and peristalsis which pushes food through the digestive system. Voluntary contraction of the skeletal muscles is used to move the body and can be finely controlled. Examples are movements of the eye, or gross movements like the quadriceps muscle of the thigh. There are two broad types of voluntary muscle fibers: slow twitch and fast twitch. Slow twitch fibers contract for long periods of time but with little force while fast twitch fibers contract quickly and powerfully but fatigue very rapidly.

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