Rat Smooth Muscle Tissue
The digital image presented in this section is a reconstruction of rat smooth muscle tissue stained with Alexa Fluor 350 (wheat germ agglutinin; highlighting lectins), Alexa Fluor 568 (phalloidin; labeling actin filaments), and SYTOX Green (nuclei). Unlike cardiac and skeletal muscle, smooth muscle does not express the protein troponin. Instead, among the major proteins expressed by this type of muscle are caldesmon, calmodulin, and calponin.