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The Journal of Experimental Biology 205, 159-165 (2002)
© 2002 The Company of Biologists Limited

Review

Is muscle involved in the mechanical adaptability of echinoderm mutable collagenous tissue?

I. C. Wilkie^*

School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow G4 0BA, Scotland

*e-mail: i.wilkie{at}gcal.ac.uk

Accepted 6 November 2001

The mutable collagenous tissue (MCT) of echinoderms has the capacity to change its mechanical properties in a time scale of less than 1 s to a few minutes under the influence of the nervous system. Although accumulating evidence indicates that the mechanical adaptability of MCT is due primarily to the modulation of interactions between components of the extracellular matrix, the presence of muscle in a few mutable collagenous structures has led some workers to suggest that contractile cells may play an important role in the phenomenon of variable tensility and to call for a re-evaluation of the whole MCT concept. This contribution summarises present information on MCT and appraises the argument implicating muscle in its unique mechanical behaviour. It is concluded that there is no evidence that the variability of the passive mechanical properties of any mutable collagenous structure is due to muscle.

Key words: Echinodermata, mutable collagenous tissue, connective tissue, extracellular matrix, muscle, juxtaligamental cell, mechanical properties, variable tensility.

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