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Organization of Actin in a Mammalian Smooth Muscle

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Abstract

THE study of the relation between structure and function in striated muscle has been successful largely because the components of its contractile system are organized in a very regular manner, such as a precise grouping of filaments into bands and a precision of arrangement of one filament relative to another in the bands. This has made possible structural investigations of living muscles at rest and during contraction by light microscopy1 and X-ray diffraction2,3. Furthermore, comparison with living material has shown that order is well maintained in fixed and dehydrated muscles4 which can therefore provide significant information when studied by electron microscopy. Using these various techniques, such structural investigations have in recent years given much insight into the contractile mechanism of striated muscles.

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ELLIOTT, G., LOWY, J. Organization of Actin in a Mammalian Smooth Muscle. Nature 219, 156–157 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1038/219156a0

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