Smooth muscle can be found in multiple places, like the eyes and skin. In the eyes it makes pupils dialate in reaction to light. In the skin it contracts in reaction to cold; pulling hair on the body up to trap a layer of warm air above the skin. (this also causes goose bumps)
smooth muscle
The cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, and respiratory systems are composed mostly of hollow organs (tubular or sacular), which transport and/or store fluids (either liquids or gases) within the body. The walls of these organs contain smooth muscle, a type of tissue which enables them to constrict or dilate, in this way retarding or facilitating fluid movement as required. This is accomplished by the shortening or lengthening of the individual smooth muscle cells, which occurs in a co-ordinated fashion because the cells are electrically coupled by intercellular connections, known as gap junctions. Other structures in the body that contain smooth muscle include the myometrium - the muscular wall of the uterus - which is responsible for the rhythmic contractions of labour; the piloerector muscles, which cause skin hair to stand up; and the irises, which control the diameter of the pupils.
Function
Smooth muscle thus subserves all internal, involuntary functions, except the movements of breathing and the beating of the heart. Many directly acting chemical agents affect its contraction, but most smooth muscle is also under the control of the autonomic nervous system; in some sites (notably most blood vessels) it is influenced only by the sympathetic component, and at others (for example in the gut and the iris) by dual, and sometimes opposite, effects of sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves.
As befits its many functions, smooth muscle at different sites is much more heterogeneous than skeletal or cardiac muscle. By creating diverse structural arrangements of smooth muscle and other associated cells, and at the same time varying the mechanisms that control contraction, evolution has achieved a remarkable diversity of smooth muscle-containing organs, each of which is designed to fill a unique functional niche.
Location
Found within the "walls" of hollow organs and elsewhere like the bladder and abdominal cavity, the uterus, male and female reproductive tracts, the gastrointestinal tract, the respiratory tract, the vasculature, the skin and the ciliary muscle and iris of the eye. The glomeruli of the kidneys contain a smooth muscle like cell called the mesangial cell. Smooth muscle is fundamentally different from skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle in terms of structure and function.
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smooth muscles are present in alimentary canal
visceral smooth muscles cells function together as ONE (functional syncytium) multiunit smooth muscle act independently.
Smooth Muscles can, but Cardiac Muscles can not.
yes. The smooth muscles (e.g. in the digestive tract) are involuntary.
Smooth muscles produce a slow movement of the stomach mixing the contents. This muscle is not voluntary as you do not have to think about it as you do with your legs and arm muscles.
Smooth muscles are involuntary, as are cardiac muscles. Only skeletal muscles are voluntary.
yes. Smooth muscles are another name for involuntary muscles.
Muscles are names according to size, shape, direction of fibers, location, attachment, number of attachments, and function.
smooth muscles.
The muscles of the digestive system are smooth muscles.
smooth muscles and cardiac muscles
Involuntary muscles