The Three Types of Muscle Tissue All of the muscle tissue in your body is different. There are three types of muscle tissue: Skeletal Muscle Tissue, Cardiac Muscle Tissue, and Smooth Muscle Tissue. Striated and Smooth Muscle Tissue The two muscles that are striated are skeletal muscle tissue and cardiac muscle tissue. The striated muscle tissue is striped. The smooth muscle tissue is not. The smooth muscle tissue is made up of one or more layers of tissue Comparing and Contrasting the Three Types of Muscle Tissue The human body has three types of muscle tissue. The skeletal muscle tissue, the smooth muscle tissue, and the cardiac muscle tissue. Skeletal muscle tissue helps hold the bones of the skeleton together and gives the body shape. These muscles vary greatly in size, depending on the type of job that they do. Skeletal muscle fibers have bands called striatons. Each fiber also has many core elements called nuclei. These nuclei contain growth producing substances that repair or remake various parts of the muscle fiber as they wear out. Smooth muscle tissue is found in different organs. These include: the walls of the stomach, intestines, blood vessels, and bladder. Smooth muscle tissue is not striated. Smooth muscle tissue also is smaller than skeletal muscle fibers. Smooth muscle tissue only has one nucleus in each fiber. Smooth muscles are involuntary muscles, meaning you can't control them, unlike the skeletal muscles. Cardiac muscle tissue makes the walls of the heart. (They are striated and have only one nucleus). As cardiac muscle fibers contract, they push blood out of the heart and into the arteries Muscle Fibers and Filaments All muscles are made up of cells called muscle fibers. Each skeletal muscle is composed of thousands of long, cylindrical muscle fibers. When viewed under a microscope, these fibers show alternating light and dark bands called striations. For this reason, skeletal muscles are also called striated muscles. The striations occur because thick and thin filaments (strands) repeatedly overlap eachother. The thick filaments consist of a protein called myosin. The thin filaments are made up cheifly of the protein actin. Expanding Muscle Fibers Muscle fibers expand due to bodybuilding and exercise. The bigger the muscle fibers are, the bigger your muscles are.