Small thread-like or chain-like structures, especially in biological tissue; the plural of fibril.
From Latin 'fibrilla' (diminutive of 'fibra' meaning fiber or thread). The term entered English in the 1700s as microscopy revealed these previously invisible structures in muscles, collagen, and plant tissues.
Muscle fibrils are organized in such a precise pattern that when they contract, they create the 'sliding filament mechanism,' and this discovery earned scientists a Nobel Prize—we went from seeing the fibrils to understanding exactly how they work.
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