Types of Muscle Cells

Cardiac muscle tissue is able to set its own contraction rhythm due to the presence of pacemaker cells that stimulate the other cardiac muscle cells. The pacemaker cells normally receive inputs from the nervous system to increase or decrease the heart rate depending on the body’s needs.

Skeletal muscle is one of three major muscle types, the others being cardiac muscle and smooth muscle. It is a form of striated muscle tissue which is under the voluntary control of the somatic nervous system. Most skeletal muscles are attached to bones by bundles of collagen fibers known as tendons.

Smooth muscle is an involuntary non-striated muscle. It is divided into two subgroups; the single-unit (unitary) and multiunit smooth muscle. Within single-unit cells, the whole bundle or sheet contracts as a syncytium.