Muscle Biology: The Life History of a Muscle

Muscle Biology: The Life History of a Muscle

Muscle Biology: The Life History of a Muscle looks at the story of a muscle from its embryonic beginnings, through its growth and ability to adapt to changing functional circumstances during adult life, to its eventual decline in both structure and function as old age progresses. Injury occurs to muscle during normal activity, after trauma, and during the source of certain diseases. Chapters on both muscle regeneration and muscle diseases emphasize the possibilities and limitsations of the healing capacity of muscle fibers. Muscle Biology begins with a brief review about the structure and function of a normal mature muscle and then proceeds to follow the developmental history of a muscle from the embryo to old age in a manner that gives the reader a perspective about not only developmental controls but also how at any stage of development a muscle is able to adapt to its functional environment. The book discusses both normal and abnormal changes in the muscle, the mechanisms behind those changes and how to mitigate deleterious changes from disease, 'normal' aging, and disuse/lack of physical activity. This is a must-have reference for students, researchers and practitioners in need of a comprehensive overview of muscle biology. Provides an overview of muscle biology over the course of one’s entire lifespan - Explains the important elements of each aspect of muscle biology without drowning the reader in excessive detail - Contains over 300 illustrations and includes chapter summaries Provides an overview of skeletal muscle biology over the course of one’s lifespan, from the embryonic origins of muscle to muscle in extreme old aging, while also covering skeletal muscle development, pathology, changes in training and regeneration Muscle Biology: The Life History of a Muscle tells the story of a muscle, from its embryonic origins to its condition at the end of life. This book uses the leg muscle, a tightly knitted group, the quadriceps femoris, which consists of four individual muscles (rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis and vastus intermedius) to provide an in-depth look at skeletal muscle biology. It covers the development of the muscle, muscle pathology, changes in the muscle from training and muscle regeneration. Muscle Biology: The Life History of a Muscle conveys basic specific information about the various aspects of a muscle’s existence and educates readers to the fact that muscle can be viewed as a continuum of developmental events so that readers get a broad review of the essential ways that muscles adapt to their environment over the course of a lifetime. The book discusses both normal and abnormal changes in the muscle, the mechanisms behind those changes and how to mitigate deleterious changes from disease, ‘normal” aging, and disuse/lack of physical activity. This is a must-have reference for students, researchers and practitioners in need of a comprehensive overview of muscle biology. Bruce M. Carlson, MD, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Anatomy in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology in the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor. He served as chair of that department from 1998-2000. He is also Research Professor Emeritus in the school’s Institute of Gerontology, of which he was the director from 2000 to 2003. Professor Carlson writes the majority of the book himself but he has suggested that he may bring in one or two contributors this time round to cover areas that he is not as up to date on as he once was. We have spoken about bringing in a co-author and he is open for this to happen for the 7th edition when he has had time to find someone suitable.