Cardiac Muscle Flashcards
Two types of cardiac muscle cells
- contractile
- conducting
Contractile Cells
- 99%
- they are the cells that contract
- majority of atrial and ventricular tissues
What generates pressure?
Contractions
Conducting cells
- do not contract
- SA node, AV node, Bundle of His and Purkinje
SA node
- able to generate action potentials spontaneously
- pacemaker
- fastest electrical activity in the heart
- unstable resting membrane potential
- rapid upstroke, but no sustained plateau
- exhibits automaticity
- innervated by parasympathetic and sympathetic
Cardiac Muscle Characteristics
- not symmetrically in one line (skeletal muscle is, smooth muscle is)
- intercalated disks (also present in smooth)
- form a functional syncytium
- desmosome, gap junction, T-tubles, SR, intercalated disk, thin & thick myofilaments
Desmosomes
- within intercalated disks
- transfer force from cell to cell
- gap junctions which allow electrical signals to pass rapidly
Intercalated disk
- allows the signal to be passed very quickly
- allows the cells to function together in a coordinated manner called functional syncytium
Contraction of cardiac muscle is similar to what?
-skeletal muscle!
Gap Junctions
- allow rapid passage of electrical impulses from one cell to the next
- physical attachment of cardiac cells for contraction
Resting Potential
- negatively charged
- difference in K+ (potassium) concentration across the cell membrane is the primary determinate
- -85 mV
Role of Na+K+ pump?
- maintain the [Na+] and [K+] gradients
- the exchange between sodium and potassium starts the mechanism
Action Potential Phase 0
- upstroke
- begins when membrane potential approaches threshold and sodium (Na+) channels open
- rapid depolarization
Action Potential Phase 1
- initial repolarization
- brief period of repolarization due to inactivation of Na+ channels
- outward flow of K+, because inside cell is more positively charged
- very short, very minimal
Action Potential Phase 2
- plateau
- little change in membrane potential occurs
- calcium comes in
- potassium goes out
Where does the calcium come from for cardiac action potential?
-both the sarcoplasmic reticulum and from outside the cell