What is the relationship between sphincter muscles and collagen?  I'm
wanting to know to what extent collagen is present in the various
sphincters of the human body.

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Request for Question Clarification by ephraim-ga on 06 Aug 2003 14:36 PDT

Jat,

I've found articles which indicate a relationship between collagen and
three specific sphincters in the body. In two of these cases, the
articles have shown a relationship, but none of them go into great
detail about the subject. In the third case, I *have* found a huge
number of articles that specifically mention injected collagen as a
possible therapy for one specific sphincter.

Please let me know if this information would be useful for you and if
you'd like to see it posted as the answer.

/ephraim

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Clarification of Question by jat-ga on 06 Aug 2003 20:15 PDT

I'm not interested in collagen injections.  I want to know to what
extent collagen is involved in the physiological makeup and function
of the sphincter muscles themselves.  Hope this helps...

some sphincters are smooth muscle, and not subject to voluntary
control. Others are skeletal muscle, and are subject to control.
Collagen is connective tissue, and while present in or near many
tissues, has nothing to do with the function of muscle, voluntary or
involuntary, except to the extent to which any tissue derives some
function from the support of tissues around it.