CONTRACTILE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does contractile mean? 

• CONTRACTILE (adjective)
  The adjective CONTRACTILE has 1 sense:

1. capable of contracting or being contracted

  Familiarity information: CONTRACTILE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONTRACTILE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Capable of contracting or being contracted

Context example:

the contractile wings of an insect

Similar:

contracted (reduced in size or pulled together)

Derivation:

contractility (the capability or quality of shrinking or contracting, especially by muscle fibers and even some other forms of living matter)

 Context examples 

Methocarbamol has no direct effect on the contractile mechanism of striated muscle, the motor end plate or the nerve fiber.

(Methocarbamol, NCI Thesaurus)

Slender, contractile, mesenchymal-like cells found in close association with capillary walls.

(Murine Pericytes, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

Metaxalone has no direct effect on the contractile mechanisms of striated muscle, the motor end plate, or the nerve fiber.

(Metaxalone, NCI Thesaurus)

Hydralazine exerts its vasodilatory effects through modification of the contractile state of arterial vascular smooth muscle by altering intracellular calcium release, and interfering with smooth muscle cell calcium influx.

(Hydralazine, NCI Thesaurus)

Researchers determined that microtubules, a type of molecular “strut,” play a key role in regulating contractile function in mouse and rat heart cells.

(Microtubules’ role in heart cell contraction revealed, NIH)

They consist of a soft contractile substance enclosed in a tubular sheath.

(Murine Rhabdomyocytes, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

One of the contractile organs of the body.

(Muscle, NCI Thesaurus)

Fibrillar protein polymers found in the contractile apparatus of muscle cells.

(Myofilament, NCI Thesaurus)

The cytoplasm can be distinguished from the surrounding matrix because of actin filaments, myosin and other muscle proteins arranged to suggest a contractile ability.

(Myofibroblast, NCI Thesaurus)

A contractile cell found between the secretory cells and basement membrane of exocrine glands.

(Myoepithelial Cell, NCI Thesaurus)