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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Apr 1.
Published in final edited form as: Semin Fetal Neonatal Med. 2016 Jan 14;21(2):106–112. doi: 10.1016/j.siny.2015.12.009

Fig. 3.

Fig. 3

The emerging view of uterine and cervical smooth muscle cell (SMC) architecture. The area of the internal os contains circumferential SMCs that are contractile and resemble a “sphincter.” These SMCs express gap junctions which are a means to directly communicate with uterine SMCs.