The ciliary muscle is an

intrinsic muscle Anatomical terminology is used to uniquely describe aspects of skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, and smooth muscle such as their actions, structure, size, and location. Types There are three types of muscle tissue in the body: skeletal, smooth, a ...

of the

eye Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and conv ...

formed as a ring of

smooth muscle Smooth muscle is an involuntary non-striated muscle, so-called because it has no sarcomeres and therefore no striations (''bands'' or ''stripes''). It is divided into two subgroups, single-unit and multiunit smooth muscle. Within single-unit mus ...

Schachar, Ronald A. (2012). "Anatomy and Physiology." (Chapter 4) . in the eye's middle layer, uvea (

vascular layer The uvea (; Latin, Lat. ''uva'', "grape"), also called the ''uveal layer'', ''uveal coat'', ''uveal tract'', ''vascular tunic'' or ''vascular layer'' is the pigmented middle of the three concentric layers that make up an human eye, eye. Hist ...

). It controls accommodation for viewing objects at varying distances and regulates the flow of aqueous humor into Schlemm's canal. It also changes the shape of the lens within the eye but not the size of the pupil which is carried out by the sphincter pupillae muscle and

dilator pupillae The iris dilator muscle (pupil dilator muscle, pupillary dilator, radial muscle of iris, radiating fibers), is a smooth muscle of the eye, running radially in the iris and therefore fit as a dilator. The pupillary dilator consists of a spokelike ...

Structure

Development

The ciliary muscle develops from

mesenchyme Mesenchyme () is a type of loosely organized animal embryonic connective tissue of undifferentiated cells that give rise to most tissues, such as skin, blood or bone. The interactions between mesenchyme and epithelium help to form nearly every o ...

within the choroid and is considered a cranial neural crest derivative.Dudek RW, Fix JD (2004). "Eye" (chapter 9). ''Embryology - Board Review Series'' (3rd edition, illustrated). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. p. 92. , . Books.Google.com. Retrieved on 2010-01-17 from https://books.google.com/books?id=MmoJQWsJteoC.

Nerve supply

The ciliary muscle receives parasympathetic fibers from the short ciliary nerves that arise from the ciliary ganglion. The parasympathetic postganglionic fibers are part of cranial nerve V₁ ( Nasociliary nerve of the trigeminal), while presynaptic parasympathetic fibers to the ciliary ganglia travel with the oculomotor nerve. The postganglionic parasympathetic innervation arises from the ciliary ganglion. Presynaptic parasympathetic signals that originate in the Edinger-Westphal nucleus are carried by cranial nerve III (the

oculomotor nerve The oculomotor nerve, also known as the third cranial nerve, cranial nerve III, or simply CN III, is a cranial nerve that enters the orbit through the superior orbital fissure and innervates extraocular muscles that enable most movements of ...

) and travel through the ciliary ganglion via the postganglionic parasympathetic fibers which travel in the short ciliary nerves and supply the ciliary body and iris.

Parasympathetic The parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) is one of the three divisions of the autonomic nervous system, the others being the sympathetic nervous system and the enteric nervous system. The enteric nervous system is sometimes considered part of t ...

activation of the M3 muscarinic receptors causes ciliary muscle contraction. The effect of contraction is to decrease the diameter of the ring of ciliary muscle causing relaxation of the zonule fibers, the lens becomes more spherical, increasing its power to refract light for near vision. The parasympathetic tone is dominant when a higher degree of accommodation of the lens is required, such as reading a book.

Function

Accommodation

The ciliary fibers have circular (Ivanoff), longitudinal ( meridional) and radial orientations. According to Hermann von Helmholtz's theory, the circular ciliary muscle fibers affect

zonular fibers The zonule of Zinn () (Zinn's membrane, ciliary zonule) (after Johann Gottfried Zinn) is a ring of fibrous strands forming a zonule (little band) that connects the ciliary body with the crystalline lens of the eye. These fibers are sometimes collec ...

in the

(fibers that suspend the lens in position during accommodation), enabling changes in lens shape for light focusing. When the ciliary muscle contracts, it pulls itself forward and moves the frontal region toward the axis of the eye. This releases the tension on the lens caused by the zonular fibers (fibers that hold or flatten the lens). This release of tension of the zonular fibers causes the lens to become more spherical, adapting to short range focus. Conversely, relaxation of the ciliary muscle causes the zonular fibers to become taut, flattening the lens, increasing the

focal distance The focal length of an optical system is a measure of how strongly the system converges or diverges light; it is the inverse of the system's optical power. A positive focal length indicates that a system converges light, while a negative foca ...

, increasing long range focus. Although Helmholtz's theory has been widely accepted since 1855, its mechanism still remains controversial. Alternative theories of accommodation have been proposed by others, including L. Johnson, M. Tscherning, and especially Ronald A. Schachar.

Trabecular meshwork pore size

Contraction and relaxation of the longitudinal fibers, which insert into the trabecular meshwork in the anterior chamber of the eye, cause an increase and decrease in the meshwork pore size, respectively, facilitating and impeding aqueous humour flow into the

canal of Schlemm Schlemm's canal is a circular lymphatic-like vessel in the eye. It collects aqueous humor from the anterior chamber and delivers it into the episcleral blood vessels. Canaloplasty may be used to widen it. Structure Schlemm's canal is an endoth ...

Clinical significance

Glaucoma

Open-angle

glaucoma Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that result in damage to the optic nerve (or retina) and cause vision loss. The most common type is open-angle (wide angle, chronic simple) glaucoma, in which the drainage angle for fluid within the eye re ...

(OAG) and closed-angle glaucoma (CAG) may be treated by muscarinic receptor agonists (e.g., pilocarpine), which cause rapid miosis and contraction of the ciliary muscles, opening the trabecular meshwork, facilitating drainage of the aqueous humour into the canal of Schlemm and ultimately decreasing intraocular pressure.Le, Tao T.; Cai, Xumei; Waples-Trefil, Flora. "QID: 22067". USMLERx. MedIQ Learning, LLC. 2006–2010. 13 January 201
Usmlerx.com

History

Etymology

The word ''ciliary'' had its origins around 1685–1695. The term '' cilia'' originated a few years later in 1705–1715, and is the Neo-Latin

plural The plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the ...

of ''cilium'' meaning eyelash. In

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

, ''cilia'' means upper eyelid and is perhaps a back formation from ''supercilium'', meaning eyebrow. The suffix ''-ary'' originally occurred in loanwords from

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...

(''-arie''),

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligi ...

(''-er'', ''-eer'', ''-ier'', -''aire'', -er), and Latin (''-ārius''); it can generally mean "pertaining to, connected with", "contributing to", and "for the purpose of". Taken together, ''cili(a)-ary'' pertains to various anatomical structures in and around the eye, namely the ciliary body and annular suspension of the lens of the eye."ciliary," in Dictionary.com Unabridged. Source location: Random House, Inc. Reference.com. Retrieved on 2010-01-16 from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ciliary.

Additional images

File:Gray873.png, The arteries of the choroid and iris. The greater part of the sclera has been removed. File:Gray878.png, Iris, front view.

References

External links

Lens, zonule fibers, and ciliary muscles—SEM
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ciliary Muscle Muscles of the head and neck Human eye anatomy