Muscular layer

Muscular layer
Histological section of the ureter, showing the thick muscular layers surrounding the lumen.
Details
Latin	tunica muscularis
Identifiers
Dorlands /Elsevier	12832129
Anatomical terminology

The muscular layer (muscular coat, muscular fibers, muscularis propria, muscularis externa) is a region of submucosa. It is responsible for gut movement such as peristalsis. The Latin, tunica muscularis, may also be used.

Structure

It usually has two layers of smooth muscle:

• inner and "circular"
• outer and "longitudinal"

However, there are some exceptions to this pattern.

• In the stomach and large intestine, there are three layers to the muscularis externa.
• In the upper esophagus, part of the externa is skeletal muscle, rather than smooth muscle.
• In the vas deferens of the spermatic cord, there are three layers: inner longitudinal, middle circular, and outer longitudinal.
• In the ureter the smooth muscle orientation is opposite that of the GI tract. There is an inner longitudinal and an outer circular layer.

The inner layer of the muscularis externa forms a sphincter at two locations of the alimentary canal:

• in the pylorus of the stomach, it forms the pyloric sphincter
• in the anal canal, it forms the internal anal sphincter

References

This article incorporates text in the public domain from the 20th edition of Gray's Anatomy (1918)