In this video, we're going to talk about the first type of muscle tissue in our lesson, which is skeletal muscle tissue. Skeletal muscle tissue is also sometimes referred to as voluntary muscle tissue. The reason that skeletal muscle tissue is called skeletal muscle tissue is because it tends to be attached to the skeleton via tendons, which connects muscles to bone. The reason that it's called voluntary muscle tissue is because it allows for voluntary or consciously controlled movements. Really what we're saying here is that skeletal muscle tissue or voluntary muscle tissue is under our control.
When we think about these muscles, we can actually consciously control the contraction of those muscles, which allows us to control our body movements. For example, when I think about the muscles in my hand, I can consciously control the contraction of those muscles in my hand to force my hand to contract as so. That is going to be skeletal muscle, or again, voluntary muscle tissue. This voluntary nature that allows for consciously controlled movements is actually unique to skeletal muscle tissue. The other two types of muscle tissue, including cardiac muscle tissue and smooth muscle tissue, do not allow for consciously controlled movements.
They are actually considered involuntary muscle tissue. Any type of muscle that you can think about and consciously control the contraction of those muscles is going to consist of skeletal muscle tissue, or again, voluntary muscle tissue. Skeletal muscle tissue actually has several key features, including the ones that we're listing down below. One notable feature of skeletal muscle tissue is that it contains striations in the tissue. These striations are really just a banded appearance or a banded pattern that appears in the tissue.
These striations or this banded appearance are due to the alignment of protein myofilaments. You might recall from our last lesson video that a common feature of all muscle tissue is that they contain protein myofilaments. However, the protein myofilaments in skeletal muscle tissue align themselves in such a way that it creates these striated or banded like appearance. Another notable feature of skeletal muscle tissue is that it consists of long cylindrical cells that are also known as muscle fibers. You might recall in our last lesson video that the term muscle fibers can refer to muscle cells.
The skeletal muscle tissue cells are called muscle fibers. These are going to be long and cylindrical cells. In some cases, these cells can be quite long. They can actually be over 1 foot in length which is pretty long for a single cell. Because these cells are so long, one nucleus is not going to be enough to support the cell.
This leads us to the next notable feature of skeletal muscle tissue, which is that it consists of multinucleated cells, which of course means that the cells, these muscle fibers, are going to have multiple nuclei. Remember that a common feature of all muscle tissue is that they contain protein myofilaments, which allow for contractions. In skeletal muscle tissue, which allows for voluntary contractions that we have control over, we are constantly controlling our skeletal muscle tissue all the time. So, our skeletal muscle tissue is constantly contracting.
They need a lot of protein myofilaments to support all of those contractions. These muscle fibers and skeletal muscle tissue are going to have a very high protein demand. In order to meet the high protein demands of these skeletal muscle fibers, it's going to need lots of nuclei. Because within the nuclei is the DNA, and the DNA codes for protein. If you have high protein demands, you're going to need lots of DNA and therefore lots of nuclei.
Let's take a look at our image down below where we can start to piece things together and visualize some skeletal muscle tissue. Skeletal muscle tissue is also known as voluntary muscle tissue. So, any muscle that you can think about and consciously control the contraction of that muscle is going to be skeletal muscle tissue. For example, our biceps, we know that we can consciously control the contraction of our bicep. It's going to consist of skeletal muscle tissue.
What you'll notice is looking at this micrograph of skeletal muscle tissue, notice that the muscle fiber, which again is the muscle cell, is being indicated here with the brackets. This entire thing that I'm highlighting right here is going to be 1 muscle fiber, which is just 1 muscle cell. Up above, right here, you'll see another muscle fiber, which is again another muscle cell. And then down below, right here, you'll see yet another muscle fiber. This micrograph is showing us 3 muscle fibers or 3 muscle cells, if you will.
What you'll notice about each of these muscle fibers is that they have this striated or banded appearance when you look really closely. This striated or banded appearance, once again, is due to the alignment of protein myofilaments. This banded appearance is referred to as striations. Each of these muscle fibers is going to be multinucleated.
You can see that we are labeling multiple nuclei here in this one muscle fiber. These purple circles here represent the nuclei. Once again, each of these muscle fibers is going to be multinucleated to support the high protein demands. This concludes our brief lesson on skeletal muscle tissue, and we'll be able to get some practice and learn about the other types of muscle tissue as we move forward. So, I'll see you all in our next video.