Final answer:
The process of muscular growth in skeletal muscle involves hypertrophy, not hyperplasia, making the statement false. Skeletal muscle grows by increasing the size of existing fibers, while hyperplasia is more characteristic of smooth muscle growth, such as in the uterus.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement 'The process of muscular growth is a combination of hypertrophy and hyperplasia' is false when referring to skeletal muscle. Skeletal muscle growth primarily involves hypertrophy, which is the increase in muscle mass due to the addition of structural proteins, leading to an increase in the size of existing muscle fibers. Conversely, hyperplasia refers to the creation of new muscle cells, which is a process that commonly occurs in smooth muscle, such as when the uterus enlarges during puberty in response to increased estrogen levels.
Muscle hypertrophy in skeletal muscle is often stimulated by resistance exercise, like weight lifting, and it is characterized by an increase in the number of sarcomeres and myofibrils within the muscle fibers. In contrast, smooth muscle can grow through both hypertrophy and hyperplasia. Hyperplasia in smooth muscle allows for the division and increase in the number of cells, such as in the uterus' myometrium.
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