Striped or Striated Muscles-
They are attached to the bones with the help of tendons/ aponeurosis, hence also called as skeletal muscles. They are voluntary in function, hence also called as voluntary muscles.
The muscle fibre is long, thread-like, unbranched & multinucleated. The muscle fibre, being muscle cell, is bounded by a sarcolemma. It’s cytoplasm is called as sarcoplasm. The muscle fibre consists of myofibrils which are situated parallel to each other. The myofibrils are made up of actin and myosin contractile proteins. The muscle fibre has alternate light and dark bands. The light band is called as I – band (Isotropic band) where dark band is called as A – band (Anisotropic band). There is a Z – line in the centre of I – band. The structure between two Z – lines is called as sarcomere which is a functional unit of muscle. During muscle contraction, the myosin filaments remain stationary while the actin filaments slide over the myosin.