Leonardo

The contraction of specialized skeletal muscle cells results in classic movements of bones and other parts of the body that are vital for life. There is exquisite control over the movement of diverse types of muscles. This paper indicates the way in which skeletal muscles (myofibres) are formed; then factors that contribute to generating the movement are outlined: these include the nerve, sarcomeres, cytoskeleton, cell membrane and the extracellular matrix. The factors controlling the movement of mature myofibres in 3-dimensional tissues in vivo are vastly more complex than for tissue cultured immature muscle cells in an artificial in vitro environment.