Difference Between Cardiac and Skeletal Muscle

cardiac vs skeletal muscle

Cardiac and skeletal muscles are both striated muscles. Apart from this similarity, one can come across many differences between the two types of muscles.

One of the main differences that can be seen is that cardiac muscles are involuntarily controlled, whereas the somatic nervous system controls the ovement of the skeletal muscles.

Cardiac muscles and skeletal muscles are also different in their shape. While the cardiac muscles are semi-spindle, the skeletal muscles are cylindrical in shape. Another difference is that the cardiac muscles are short in comparison to skeletal muscles.

The skeletal muscles are attached to the bone through tendons. The skeletal muscles also contain myoblasts, which form the fibers in the muscles. The cardiac muscles are seen in the myocardium of the heart. The cardiac muscles contain intercalated discs and T-tubules, which connects the myocyte to the synctium.

The skeletal muscles are tightly bound together when compared to cardiac muscles. Unlike skeletal muscles, gap junctions are found in cardiac muscles. There is only a common contraction known as synctium in skeletal muscles and no gap junctions.
When the skeletal muscles are multi-nucleated, the cardiac muscles have one or two nuclei. In the case of endomysium and mitochondria, it is dense in cardiac muscles when compared to skeletal muscles. Moreover, the mitochondria in cardiac muscles have more blood vessels. In cardiac muscles, about 25 per cent of the space is occupied by mitochondria, whereas it is just two per cent in skeletal muscles. When looking at the T-tubules, the skeletal muscles contain more of it than the cardiac muscles. Moreover, the T-tubules in cardiac muscles are also wider.

Summary

1. Cardiac muscles are involuntarily controlled, whereas the somatic nervous system controls the movement of the skeletal muscles.
2. While the cardiac muscles are semi-spindle, the skeletal muscles are cylindrical in shape.
3. The skeletal muscles are tightly bound together when compared to cardiac muscles.
4. Cardiac muscles are short in comparison to skeletal muscles.
5. When the skeletal muscles are multi-nucleated, the cardiac muscles have one or two nuclei. In the case of endomysium and mitochondria, it is dense in cardiac muscles when compared to skeletal muscles.
6. When looking at the T-tubules, the skeletal muscles contain more of it than the cardiac muscles. Moreover, the T-tubules in cardiac muscles are wider also.
7. Unlike skeletal muscles, gap junctions are found in cardiac muscles. There is only a common contraction known as synctium in skeletal muscles.

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