Question at position 22 Cardiac muscle cells _____________ freely, allowing them to form a coordinated structure.contractelongatebranchfuse

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Question restatement: Cardiac muscle cells _____________ freely, allowing them to form a coordinated structure. Options: contract, elongate, branch, fuse.
Option 1: contract. If cardiac muscle cells freely contracted in any direction, it would impair their ability to coordinate a synchronized heartbeat. Contraction is essential, but the key feature here is how cells connect structurally to enable coordination, not the act of contracting itself. So this choice describes a function of muscle cells rather than a description of how they connect.
Option 2: elongate. Cardiac muscle cells do not elongate freely as a defining feature of their intercellular connections. They are relatively short and branched rather than simply elongating; elongation would also interfere with the uniform, rhythmic contraction across the heart muscle. This makes elongate an unlikely descriptor for how they join.
Option 3: branch. Cardiac muscle cells are linked by intercalated discs and have a branched morphology, which allows each cell to connect with multiple neighbors. This branching creates a network that supports rapid and coordinated transmission of electrical impulses and mechanical force, enabling a synchronized contraction of the heart muscle.
Option 4: fuse. While cellular fusion is a process in some tissues, cardiac muscle cells do not fuse to form a continuous syncytium in the way some other muscle types do. They maintain distinctive cellular boundaries connected by specialized junctions rather than fully fusing into a single cell. Thus, fusion is not the appropriate description of their mode of interconnection.
Summary: Among the options, branch accurately describes the characteristic connectivity of cardiac muscle cells, due to their branched shape enabling a coordinated network through intercalated discs. The other options describe functions (contract) or structural features (elongate, fuse) that do not capture the key connectivity attribute that promotes synchronized activity in cardiac tissue.

Question at position 22 Cardiac muscle cells _____________ freely, allowing them to form a coordinated structure.contractelongatebranchfuse

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