View source for Striated muscle

Straited muscle consists of hundreds of myofibrils packed into a regular parallel arrangement to form a muscle fibre. Striated muscle is given its name due to dark and light bands that can be seen down a light microscope when viewing [[Myocytes|myocytes]]. Striations are present in skeletal and cardiac muscle but not in [[Smooth muscle|smooth muscle]]. The bands that can be seen are fibers that have repeating [[Sarcomeres|sarcomeres]]. The dark bands (A bands) that can be seen are [[Myosin|myosin]] filaments and are so named as they are anistropic. The light bands (I bands) that are observed are made up of&nbsp;[[Actin|actin]] filaments, and are so named because they are isotopic. 

[[Image:Lrg-1348-skeletal muscle.jpg|center|Image of skeletal muscle showing striations]]