Cardiac muscle

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Cardiac muscle is a type of involuntary striated muscle found in the walls of the heart, specifically the myocardium. Cardiac muscle cells are known as cardiac myocytes (or cardiomyocytes). Cardiac muscle is one of three major types of muscle, the others being skeletal and smooth muscle. The cells that comprise cardiac muscle are sometimes seen as intermediate between these two other types in terms of appearance, structure, metabolism, excitation-coupling and mechanism of contraction. Cardiac muscle shares similarities with skeletal muscle with regard to its striated appearance and contraction, with both differing significantly from smooth muscle cells.

Coordinated contraction of cardiac muscle cells in the heart propel blood from the atria and ventricles to the blood vessels of the circulatory system. Cardiac muscle cells, like all tissues in the body, rely on an ample blood supply to deliver oxygen and nutrients and to remove waste products such as carbon dioxide. The coronary arteries fulfill this function.

For more information about Cardiac muscle, read the full article at Wikipedia.
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News tagged with heart muscle

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Scientists achieve repair of injured heart muscle in lab tests of stem cells

Medicine & Health / Research

created Nov 25, 2008 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (10) | comments 0

Researchers at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC have been able to effectively repair damaged heart muscle in an animal model using a novel population of stem cells they discovered that is derived from human skeletal ...


Exercise could be the heart's fountain of youth

Medicine & Health / Health

created Jul 23, 2008 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (11) | comments 0

Absence may make the heart grow fonder, but endurance exercise seems to make it younger. According to a study conducted at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, older people who did endurance exercise training ...


Scientists grow mice heart muscle strip that beats

Scientists grow mice heart muscle strip that beats

Medicine & Health / Research

created Oct 15, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have grown a piece of heart muscle - and then watched it beat - by using stem cells from a mouse embryo, a big step toward one day repairing damage from heart attacks.


Overweight male teens with normal blood pressures showing signs of heart damage

Overweight male teens with normal blood pressures showing signs of heart damage

Medicine & Health / Research

created Jun 01, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (7) | comments 0

Even while their blood pressures are still normal, overweight male teens may have elevated levels of a hormone known to increase pressures as well as early signs of heart damage, researchers say.


Heart attacks: The tipping point

Heart attacks: The tipping point

Biology / Biotechnology

created Apr 27, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 0

Twenty percent of American deaths each year are caused by heart attack or angina, sometimes without any warning.


Your own stem cells can treat heart disease

Medicine & Health / Research

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 0

The largest national stem cell study for heart disease showed the first evidence that transplanting a potent form of adult stem cells into the heart muscle of subjects with severe angina results in less pain and an improved ...


Human cardiac master stem cells identified

Human cardiac master stem cells identified

Medicine & Health / Research

created Jul 01, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have identified the earliest master human heart stem cell from human embryonic stem cells - ISL1+ progenitors - that ...


Heart regenerates after infarction -- first trials with mice

Medicine & Health / Research

created Dec 11, 2008 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Up until today scientists assumed that the adult heart is unable to regenerate. Now, researchers and cardiologists from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch and the Charité – Universitätsmedizin ...


Benefit of grapes may be more than skin deep

Medicine & Health / Health

created Apr 22, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Can a grape-enriched diet prevent the downhill sequence of heart failure after years of high blood pressure?


Treating heart failure with a gas

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Nov 11, 2008 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

At low concentrations, the toxic gas hydrogen sulfide protects the hearts of mice from heart failure, scientists at Emory University School of Medicine have found.


New strategy for mending broken hearts?

New strategy for mending broken hearts?

Medicine & Health / Research

created Oct 11, 2009 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- By mimicking the way embryonic stem cells develop into heart muscle in a lab, Duke University bioengineers believe they have taken an important first step toward growing a living "heart patch" ...


Study offers clues to beating hearing loss

Medicine & Health / Research

created Mar 04, 2009 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Researchers at the University of Leeds have made a significant step forward in understanding the causes of some forms of deafness.


New tests provide new insight into why patients are in heart failure

New tests provide new insight into why patients are in heart failure

Medicine & Health / Research

created Mar 31, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

A failing heart makes a lot of a hormone needed to eliminate the excess salt and water bloating the body but not enough of the enzyme needed to activate it, researchers say.


Finding Better Ways to Diagnose Heart Attacks

Finding Better Ways to Diagnose Heart Attacks

Medicine & Health / Research

created Sep 25, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- UA biochemistry researchers apply Nobel Prize technology to develop better diagnostics for heart attacks. Their work also could help predict individual risks of heart disease.


No major role for fish in the prevention of heart failure

Medicine & Health / Health

created Sep 30, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

'No major role for fish' in the prevention of heart failure; only a possible beneficial effect in those with diabetes