Myocyte

A myocyte (also known as a muscle cell)^[1] is the type of cell found in muscles. They arise from myoblasts.^[2]

Each myocyte contains myofibrils, which are long, long chains of sarcomeres, the contractile units of the cell.

There are various specialized forms of myocytes: cardiac, skeletal, and smooth muscle cells, with various properties.

Cardiac myocytes are responsible for generating the electrical impulses that control the heart rate, among other things. (See Sinoatrial node)

Kindlin-2 plays a role in elongation.^[3]

GATA4 and GATA6 play a role in differentiation.^[4]

References

1. ^ "myocyte" at Dorland's Medical Dictionary
2. ^ MeSH Myocytes
3. ^ Dowling JJ, Vreede AP, Kim S, Golden J, Feldman EL (2008). "Kindlin-2 is required for myocyte elongation and is essential for myogenesis". BMC Cell Biol. 9: 36. doi:10.1186/1471-2121-9-36. PMC 2478659. PMID 18611274. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2121/9/36. 
4. ^ Zhao R, Watt AJ, Battle MA, Li J, Bondow BJ, Duncan SA (May 2008). "Loss of both GATA4 and GATA6 blocks cardiac myocyte differentiation and results in acardia in mice". Dev. Biol. 317 (2): 614–9. doi:10.1016/j.ydbio.2008.03.013. PMC 2423416. PMID 18400219. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0012-1606(08)00219-4.