Final answer:
The statement 'Intercalated discs and striations suggest the presence of skeletal muscle' is false (Option B). Intercalated discs are unique to cardiac muscle, which, like skeletal muscle, has striations due to the arrangement of myofilaments within myofibrils.
Step-by-step explanation:
The claim that intercalated discs and striations indicate skeletal muscle is false.
Intercalated discs are specialized regions found only in cardiac muscle tissue, where they assist in passing an electrical impulse from cell to cell.
While both cardiac and skeletal muscles display striations due to the organized arrangement of myofilaments within myofibrils, the presence of intercalated discs is a distinctive feature of cardiac muscle, not skeletal muscle.
Skeletal muscles are indeed striated; however, they lack intercalated discs. In contrast, cardiac muscle cells are also striated but are unique in that they have a single nucleus per cell and possess intercalated discs.
These discs connect cardiac muscle cells and consist of desmosomes and gap junctions, enabling the rapid spread of electrical signals across the heart muscle to coordinate its contraction.
Hence, the correct answer is false (Option B).