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Life and health

72,234 articles

Myoepithelial cell

Myoepithelial cell: contractile epithelial cell with smooth-muscle features lining the outer layer of mammary, salivary, and sweat glands; expels milk via oxytocin, makes laminin-1, and suppresses tumor invasion.

Myofascial pain syndrome

Myofascial pain syndrome (MPS), also called chronic myofascial pain, is a chronic muscle and fascia pain condition marked by trigger points causing localized and referred pain. Distinguished from fibromyalgia by regional pain; diagnosed clinically; treated with physical therapy, dry needling, injections, and medications.

Myofascial release

Myofascial release (MFR), also called myofascial release therapy, is a manual therapy applying low-load, long-duration stretch to muscle and fascia. Term coined by Robert Ward in the 1960s; evidence shows modest pain and ROM benefits but no measurable change in tissue stiffness.

Myofascial trigger point

Myofascial trigger point (MTrP): hyperirritable spot in a taut band of skeletal muscle causing local and referred pain and a local twitch response; defined by Travell and Simons, diagnosed clinically, treated with dry needling or injection.

Myofibril

Myofibril: the ~1 µm-wide cylindrical contractile organelle of striated muscle, built from 2.2–2.5 µm sarcomeres of actin and myosin filaments; sliding-filament ATP-driven contraction, titin mechanosensing, and myofibrillar myopathy.

Myofunctional therapy

Myofunctional therapy, also called orofacial myofunctional therapy, is a behavioral treatment using repeated tongue, lip, and throat exercises to correct orofacial myofunctional disorder, including tongue thrust and sleep apnea.

MYOG

MYOG (myogenin) is the human chromosome 1 gene encoding myogenin, a bHLH myogenic regulatory factor identified in 1989 that drives terminal skeletal muscle differentiation by binding E-boxes with E-proteins.

Myogenesis

Myogenesis is the biological process defining muscle tissue formation, involving cell proliferation and fusion to create myotubes. It is critical during embryonic development and resident stem cell repair.

Myogenic factor

Myogenic factors (MRFs: MyoD, Myf5, myogenin, MRF4/Myf6) are muscle-specific bHLH transcription factors that determine and differentiate skeletal muscle lineage, binding E-box DNA with E-proteins; MyoD, found in 1987, reprograms fibroblasts to muscle.

Myoglobin

Myoglobin (Mb) is a ~17 kDa monomeric heme globin in cardiac and skeletal muscle that reversibly binds oxygen (p50 2.8 torr, noncooperative), stores O2 in diving mammals, and acts in NO and lipid metabolism; first protein structure solved (Kendrew, 1959).

Myography

Myography is a laboratory method that measures the contractile force of isolated muscle or blood-vessel tissue, most commonly as isometric tension in an organ bath or as diameter change in a pressurized vessel.

Myohalovirus

Myohalovirus is a genus of contractile-tailed dsDNA archaeal viruses (family Vertoviridae, class Caudoviricetes) infecting haloarchaea; species include phiH of Halobacterium salinarum and phiCh1 of Natrialba magadii.

Myokymia

Myokymia is involuntary, fine, rippling muscle contraction from repetitive motor-unit discharges; eyelid myokymia, the commonest form, is a benign eyelid twitch triggered by fatigue, stress, and caffeine, treated with botulinum toxin if persistent.

Myometrial cell

Myometrial cell: smooth muscle cell of the uterine myometrium (myometrium smooth muscle cell) that contracts spontaneously. Distinguished by progesterone block, oxytocin receptor signaling, connexin 43 coupling, and phenotype switching across pregnancy.

Myopathic Ehlers-Danlos syndrome

Myopathic Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, also known as the EDS/myopathy overlap syndrome, is a rare inherited connective tissue disorder causing congenital muscle weakness that improves over time.

Myopathy

Myopathy is disease of skeletal muscle causing weakness, cramps, and stiffness, divided into inherited forms (congenital, mitochondrial, metabolic, dystrophies) and acquired forms (inflammatory, toxic, endocrine, infectious), diagnosed with CK, EMG, MRI, and biopsy.

Myopathy and diabetes mellitus

Myopathy and diabetes mellitus (ORPHA:2596, mitochondrial myopathy with diabetes) is a rare mtDNA-related mitochondrial myopathy caused by MT-TE tRNA-Glu mutations, chiefly m.14709T>C, combining proximal facial and scapular-girdle weakness with insulin-dependent diabetes, maternally inherited.

Myopericarditis

Myopericarditis is primarily pericarditis with minor myocardial involvement, the reverse of perimyocarditis; usually viral (Coxsackie B), diagnosed by troponin elevation without LV dysfunction, with generally good prognosis.

Myopericytoma

Myopericytoma: rare benign pericytic (perivascular) soft tissue tumor of myoid spindle cells with concentric perivascular growth, usually a painless nodule of the extremities; also called glomangiopericytoma-related perivascular myoma; malignancy very rare, treated by excision.

Myophoria

Myophoria (Bronn in Alberti, 1834) is an extinct Triassic trigonoid bivalve genus, type species M. vulgaris, family Myophoriidae, ranging Induan to Rhaetian across Europe, Asia, and North America, abundant in the Muschelkalk and extinct at the Triassic–Jurassic boundary.

Myosclerosis

Myosclerosis (congenital myosclerosis, Löwenthal type, OMIM 255600) is a rare autosomal recessive, non-dystrophic myopathy caused by COL6A2 mutations, with progressive woody muscle contractures, toe walking, and collagen VI deficiency on biopsy.

Myosin

Myosin: actin-based ATPase motor protein family, first named by Kühne in 1864; powers muscle contraction and cargo transport; over 30 classes, 38 human genes, disease-linked.

Myosin regulatory light chain

Myosin regulatory light chain (RLC, MLC2; genes MYL2, MYL7, MYLPF, MYL9, MYL12A/B) is a ~19-20 kDa EF-hand protein on the myosin lever arm whose MLCK-driven phosphorylation switches smooth muscle contraction and modulates cardiac and skeletal contraction.

Myosin storage myopathy

Myosin storage myopathy, also called hyaline body myopathy (OMIM 608358), is a rare congenital myopathy caused by MYH7 mutations in the distal rod, with myosin-rich hyaline bodies in type 1 fibers and slowly progressive weakness.

Myosin tail

Myosin tail: the C-terminal domain of myosin heavy chains, also called the globular tail domain (GTD) in myosin V/XI, responsible for cargo binding and heavy-chain dimerization, with class-specific modules such as MyTH4-FERM.

Myosin-binding protein

Myosin-binding proteins (MyBPs): MyBP-C (C-protein), MyBP-H, and MyBP-HL, thick-filament proteins of striated muscle sarcomeres binding myosin via C-terminal Ig domains in 43-nm C-zone stripes; MYBPC3 mutations cause hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Myosin-light-chain phosphatase

Myosin-light-chain phosphatase (MLCP, myosin phosphatase) is a trimeric PP1 holoenzyme (PP1cδ, MYPT1, M20) that dephosphorylates myosin II regulatory light chain Ser19, regulating smooth muscle Ca2+ sensitization via ROCK and CPI-17.

Myositis

Myositis is inflammation or swelling of the muscles, most often caused by injury, infection, medicines, or an autoimmune disorder, with muscle weakness the primary symptom.

Myosotis

Myosotis (forget-me-nots) is a genus of about 80–100 species of hairy Boraginaceae herbs with blue five-lobed flowers and four nutlets, of Northern Hemisphere origin, radiating in New Zealand where most native species are threatened.

Myospalax

Myospalax (zokors) is a genus of subterranean Spalacidae rodents with three species (aspalax, myospalax, psilurus) from northeast China, Mongolia, and Russia, adapted to hypoxic burrows and split climatically from Eospalax.