A report on Cardiac muscle, Smooth muscle and Atherosclerosis

Cardiac muscle (also called heart muscle or myocardium) is one of three types of vertebrate muscle tissue, with the other two being skeletal muscle and smooth muscle.

Smooth muscle differs from skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle in terms of structure, function, regulation of contraction, and excitation-contraction coupling.

One recent hypothesis suggests that, for unknown reasons, leukocytes, such as monocytes or basophils, begin to attack the endothelium of the artery lumen in cardiac muscle.

In addition to these cellular activities, there is also smooth muscle proliferation and migration from the tunica media into the intima in response to cytokines secreted by damaged endothelial cells.

The coronary arteries become narrowed by the formation of atherosclerotic plaques.

See Atherosclerosis.