Dynamics of Contractile Proteins Constituting Myofibrils in Living Muscle Cells

The assembly of myofibrils is quite a complex process because this highly ordered structure is brought together by three sets of components: actin and myosin filaments, accessory proteins of actin and myosin filaments, and scaffolding proteins. Major advances in the understanding of this process have been made based on the antibody staining of cultured myogenic cells at different times of development. Various current descriptions of myofibrillogenesis are in agreement on the following process (Francini-Armstrong and Fischman, 1994).