Cardiovascular system Flashcards
Of what does cardiac muscle consist?
Of short, striated muscle fibres (cells).
What do sliding filaments allow?
Shortening of the muscle.
Due to which factors’ action are filaments arranged in bundles?
Due to the action of actin and myosin.
What is actin?
Thin.
What is myosin?
Thick.
What are the bundles where filaments are arranged called?
Myofibrils.
What are the energy demands on the cell?
So high.
What is 40% of cell volume?
Mitochondria.
What is the outer layer of the ventricle wall called?
The pericardium.
With what does the inner layer or the ventricle make contact with?
The blood.
How is the inner layer of the ventricle called?
The endocardium.
What is in the middle of the ventricle?
The thick myocardium/muscle layer.
Of what is the muscle/myocardium composed?
Of myocytes.
Of what is each myocyte composed?
Of myofibrils.
What are myofibrils?
Cylindrical organelles.
What are the cylindrical organelles of muscles?
The contractile unit.
What are the cardiac muscle cells/myocardial cells?
Striated.
What do myocardial cells contain?
Actin and myosin filaments.
How areactin and myosin filaments arranged?
In the form of sarcomeres.
By what do actin and myosin filaments contract?
By means of the sliding filament mechanism.
How are myocardial cells characterised?
Short.
Branched.
Interconnected.
What is each myocardial cell in structure?
Tubular.
To what is each myocardial cell joined?
To adjacent myocardial cells.
By what is each myocardial cell joined to adjacent myocardial cells?
By electrical synapses/gap junctions.
Where are the gap junctions concentrated?
At the ends of each myocardial cell.
What does each myocardial cell permit?
Electrical impulses.
Where are electrical impulses of myocardial cells conducted?
Along the long axis from cell to cell.
For what do gap junctions in cardiac muscle have an affinity?
For stain.
As what does stain make the gap junctions appear in cardiac muscle?
As dark lines between adjacent cells.
When do gap junctions appear as dark lines between adjacent cells?
When they are viewed in the light microscope.
As what are the dark-staining lines known?
As intercalated discs.
Where do action potentials originate?
At any point in a mass of myocardial cells.
How are the actions potential from myocardial cells called?
Myocardium.
Where is myocardium spread?
To all cells in the mass that are joined by gap junctions.
What are all cells in a myocardium?
Electrically joined.
As what does a myocardium behave?
As a single functional unit.
What do skeletal muscles produce?
Contractions.
Depending on what are skeletal muscles graded?
On the number of cells stimulated.
To what does a myocardium contract each time?
To its full extent.
Why does myocardium contract to its full extend each time?
Because all of its cells contribute to the contraction.
What can the ability of the myocardial cells to contract do?
Increased by the hormone adrenaline.
By stretching of the heart chambers.
Of what is a myocyte made?
Of many myofibrils.
To what does the outer sarcolemma membrane serve?
To bundle the fibrils.
To what is the sarcolemma similar?
To a typical plasma membrane.
For what does the sarcolemma have specialised functions?
For the muscle cell.
By what is the dark and light banding pattern cause?
By the regular arrangement of actin and myosin filaments.
Where does depolarisation of the membrane proceed?
Down the longitudinal tubules to all the myofibrils.
Across what does depolarisation spread?
Across the sarcoplasmic reticulum.
Via what does the depolarisation spread across the sarcoplasmic reticulum?
Via the transverse/T tubules.
What is the SR?
The store of cellular calcium ions.
Thanks to what a more detailed banding pattern can be observed?
Thanks to the arrangement of the tubules.
Of what do triads consist?
Of two terminal cisterns of the L-system. associated with a central T-tubule segment.
What is the main function of the triads?
To translate the action potential from the plasma membrane to the sarcoplasmic reticulum.
What does action potential from the plasma membrane to the sarcoplasmic reticulum affect?
Calcium flow into the cytoplasm.
Initiation of muscle contraction.
Where do T tubules project?
Into the depths of the myocyte.
Of what id each myofibril composed?
Of a thick and thin filaments.
To what do thick and thin filaments of myofibril give rise?
To the banding pattern of the muscle.
What do the voltage-gated Ca channels in the plasma membrane and the Ca release?
Channels in the sarcoplasmic reticulum.
What do voltage-gated Ca channels and the Ca do not?
Directly interact.
To what region do the transverse T tubules come very close to?
To the sarcoplasmic reticulum.
During what does depolarization of the T tubules occur?
During an action potential.
What does depolarization of the T tubules open?
Voltage-gated Ca channels in their plasma membrane.
Where does Ca diffuse?
Into the the cytoplasm.
With what does the Ca that diffuses into the cytoplasm interact?
With the nearby Ca.
What do Ca diffused into the cytoplasm and the nearby Ca that interact with, release?
Channels in the sarcoplasmic reticulum.
What does the release of channels in the sarcoplasmic reticulum causes the Ca channels?
To pen and release the stored Ca into the cytoplasm.
What does the release of the stored Ca into the stimulate stimulate?
Contraction.
What is contraction?
A process termed: calcium-induced calcium release.
As what does Ca serve?
As a second messenger.
From where to where does Ca serve as a second messenger?
From the voltage-gated Ca channels to the Ca release channels.
Where is excitation-contraction coupling slower as a result of Ca serving as a second messenger?
In cardiac than in skeletal muscle.
Through where does Ca diffusion take place?
Through the plasma membrane of the transverse tubules.
Where does Ca diffusion serve mainly?
To open the channels in the sarcoplasmic reticulum.
Where does Ca release channels?
In the sarcoplasmic reticulum.
For what is the Ca release responsible?
For the rapid diffusion of Ca into the cytoplasm.
Where does Ca bind to after is diffused into the cytoplasm?
To troponin.
What does Ca stimulate after is diffused into the cytoplasm and binds to troponin?
Contraction.
What must the Ca in the cytoplasm be in order for the muscular chambers of the heart to relax?
They must be actively transported back into the sarcoplasmic reticulum by the Ca ATPase.
What does tropomyosin block in a relaxed muscle?
The attachment of cross bridges to actin .
Concentration of Ca.
What is the calcium concentration in the sarcoplasm?
Very low.
What happens to the Ca concentration in the sarcoplasm when the muscle cell is stimulated to contract?
It rises sharply.
What does some of the Ca attach?
Troponin.
What does the Ca attachment to troponin cause?
A conformational change.
What does the conformational change caused by Ca and troponin attachment move?
The troponin complex –> attached to tropomyosin.
Why does conformational change move troponin complex and its attached it out of the way?
So that the cross bridges can attach to actin.
Where do cross bridges bind to once the attachment sites on the actin are exposed?
To actin.
What do cross bridges that bind to actin undergo?
Power strokes.
What do cross bridges that bind to actin produce?
Muscle contraction.
What is now the preferred test for detecting myocardial infarction or heart attack?
Measurement of cardiac-specific troponin T/troponin I.
What happens to the myocardial cells in the measurement of cardiac-specific troponin T blood test?
They die and release troponin T/I proteins into the blood.
Where do blood tests for troponin T/I rely on?
Binding to specific antibodies.
What are the blood tests for troponin T/I?
Heart specific.
What does an abnormally increased plasma troponin T/I may indictaed?
That an myocardial infarction (MI) has occurred.
What has cardiac troponin become?
A continuous variable.
What is the accurate measurement of cardiac troponin?
Below the 99th percentile.
How many changes do occur in cardiac toponin?
Small changes within 1/2 hours.
What does cardiac troponin measurement and changes enable?
Development of algorithms for reliable rule-out and rule-in of acute MI within 2 hours.
What is the cardiac muscle?
Striated.
What does the cardiac muscle contain?
Sarcomeres that shorten.
By what do the sarcomeres in the cardiac muscle shorten?
By sliding of thick and thin filaments.
Of what might the detection of elevated troponin be indicative?
Of heart damage.
What do the sarcolemma and T-tubules conduct?
Electrical impulse to the muscle.
What does the conduction of sarcolemma and T-tubules that conduct electrical impulse to the muscle trigger?
Calcium release from SR.
To what does calcium bind?
To troponin.
How are the Bundles of cardiac muscle fibres arranged?
Spirally around the ventricles.
How are adjacent cardiac muscle cells joined?
End to end.
By what are the cardiac muscle cells joined end to end ?
By intercalated discs.
What do intercalated discs contain?
Two types of specialized junctions.
Which are the 2 types of specialized junctions that are contained in the intercalated discs?
- Desmosomes.
2. Gap junctions.
How do desmosomes act?
Like rivets.
How do desmosomes hold the cells together?
Mechanically.
What do gap junctions permit?
Action potentials to spread from one cell to adjacent cells.
Of what is the heart composed?
Of spiral clockwise and counter clockwise arrangement of muscle fibres.
What does the physiological sequence of ventricular function involve?
An isovolumic contraction phase to develop preejection tension.
What does pre-ejection tension mean?
The muscle begins to contract without expelling the blood.
What does follow the ejection phase?
Post-ejection isovolumic phase.
When does post-ejection isovolumic phase occur?
When there is no change in volume.
What do occur after post-ejection phase?
Rapid and slow periods for filling.
How does LV volume decrease in systole?
Rapidly.
What is systole?
The name for contraction.
How does LV volume decrease after contraction?
Slowly.
How does the volume increase in early filling?
Rapidly.