Covers how to identify cardiac muscle on an H&E slide of the heart, starting with its staining colours and then the features to look for: branching fibres, one or two central nuclei with pale zones at each end, dark step-like intercalated discs, and fainter cross-striations among many capillaries. It ends with a short comparison against skeletal muscle, which has unbranched fibres, peripheral nuclei and no intercalated discs.
Inside: 1 section · 1 min
Topic 116 of 127 in the MU Sofia syllabus for Cytology (Dental Medicine, Year 1). The free AceMed note covers it in 1 section, about 95 words (1 min of reading).
In this note
Introduction
Introduction
Cardiac muscle is made of branching cells joined end to end.
Stain
H&E: cytoplasm pink, nuclei blue-purple.
How to recognise it
Branching fibres that join into a network.
One, or sometimes two, central nuclei per cell, with a pale zone at both ends of the nucleus.
Intercalated discs: dark, often step-like lines across the fibres where the cells meet.
Cross-striations, fainter than in skeletal muscle, and many capillaries in the connective tissue.
Don't confuse it with: skeletal muscle, which has unbranched fibres with many peripheral nuclei and no intercalated discs.
Theory: topic 60 (cardiac muscle).
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