Ch.6: The Muscular System Flashcards
Muscles are responsible for all types of:
Body movement
What are the three basic muscle types found in the body?
- Skeletal muscle
- Cardiac muscle
- Smooth muscle
Skeletal and smooth muscle cells are:
- Elongated
* (muscle cell = muscle fiber)
Contraction and shortening of muscles are due to:
• The movement of microfilaments
All muscles share some terminology, such as:
- Prefixes myo- and mys- refer to “muscle”
* Prefix sarco- refers to “flesh”
What is skeletal muscle and what are the properties of it?
- Most skeletal muscle fibers are attached by tendons to bones
- Skeletal muscle cells are large, cigar-shaped, and multinucleate
- Also known as striated muscle because of its obvious stripes
- Also known as voluntary muscle because it is the only muscle tissue subject to conscious control
Skeletal muscle cells are surrounded and bundled by connective tissue, such as:
- Endomysium—encloses a single muscle fiber
- Perimysium—wraps around a fascicle (bundle) of muscle fibers
- Epimysium—covers the entire skeletal muscle
- Fascia—on the outside of the epimysium
The epimysium of skeletal muscle blends into a:
Connective tissue attachment
What are tendons?
• Cord-like structures
Mostly collagen fibers
Often cross a joint because of their toughness and small size
What are aponeuroses?
- Sheet-like structures
* Attach muscles indirectly to bones, cartilages, or connective tissue coverings
What are the properties of smooth muscle?
- No striations
- Involuntary—no conscious control
- Found mainly in the walls of hollow visceral organs (such as stomach, urinary bladder, respiratory passages)
- Spindle-shaped fibers that are uninucleate
- Contractions are slow and sustained
What are the properties of cardiac muscle?
- Striations
- Involuntary
- Found only in the walls of the heart
- Uninucleate
- Branching cells joined by gap junctions called intercalated discs
- Contracts at a steady rate set by pacemaker
Whereas all muscle types produce movement, what are the three other important roles skeletal muscle has:
- Maintain posture and body position
- Stabilize joints
- Generate heat
What is a sarcolemma?
Specialized plasma membrane
What are myofibrils?
- Long organelles inside muscle cell
* Light (I) bands and dark (A) bands give the muscle its striated (banded) appearance
What is the banding pattern of myofibrils?
I band = light band • Contains only thin filaments • Z disc is a midline interruption A band = dark band • Contains the entire length of the thick filaments • H zone is a lighter central area • M line is in center of H zone
What is a sarcomere?
- Contractile unit of a muscle fiber
* Structural and functional unit of skeletal muscle
What is the organization of the sarcomere?
Myofilaments produce a banding (striped) pattern
• Thick filaments = myosin filaments
• Thin filaments = actin filaments
Thick filaments =
- Myosin filaments
- Composed of the protein myosin
- Contain ATPase enzymes to split ATP to release energy for muscle contractions
- Possess projections known as myosin heads
- Myosin heads are known as cross bridges when they link thick and thin filaments during contraction
Thin filaments =
- Actin filaments
- Composed of the contractile protein actin
- Actin is anchored to the Z disc
At rest, within the A band there is a zone that lacks actin filaments called the:
H zone
During contraction, H zones disappear as actin and myosin filaments:
Overlap
What is sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR)?
- Specialized smooth endoplasmic reticulum
- Surrounds the myofibril
- Stores and releases calcium
What are the special functional properties of skeletal muscles?
- Irritability (also called responsiveness)—ability to receive and respond to a stimulus
- Contractility—ability to forcibly shorten when an adequate stimulus is received
- Extensibility—ability of muscle cells to be stretched
- Elasticity—ability to recoil and resume resting length after stretching
Skeletal muscles must be stimulated by a motor neuron (nerve cell) to:
Contract
What is a motor unit?
One motor neuron and all the skeletal muscle cells stimulated by that neuron
What is a neuromuscular junction?
Association site of axon terminal of the motor neuron and sarcolemma of a muscle
What is a neurotransmitter?
- Chemical released by nerve upon arrival of nerve impulse in the axon terminal
- Acetylcholine (ACh) is the neurotransmitter that stimulates skeletal muscle
What is a synaptic cleft?
- Gap between nerve and muscle filled with interstitial fluid
- Although very close, the nerve and muscle do not make contact
When a nerve impulse reaches the axon terminal of the motor neuron:
• Step 1: Calcium channels open, and calcium ions enter the axon terminal
• Step 2: Calcium ion entry causes some synaptic vesicles to release acetylcholine (ACh)
• Step 3: ACh diffuses across the synaptic cleft and attaches to receptors on the sarcolemma of the muscle cell
• Step 4: If enough A C h is released, the sarcolemma becomes temporarily more permeable to sodium ions (N a+)
*Potassium ions (K+) diffuse out of the cell
*More sodium ions enter than potassium ions leave
*Establishes an imbalance in which interior has more positive ions (depolarization), thereby opening more N a+ channels
• Step 5: Depolarization opens more sodium channels that allow sodium ions to enter the cell
*An action potential is created
*Once begun, the action potential is unstoppable
*Conducts the electrical impulse from one end of the cell to the other
• Step 6: Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) breaks down acetylcholine into acetic acid and choline
*AChE ends muscle contraction
*A single nerve impulse produces only one contraction
A cell returns to its resting state when:
- Potassium ions (K+) diffuse out of the cell
* Sodium-potassium pump moves sodium and potassium ions back to their original positions
What causes filaments to slide?
- Calcium ions (C a2+) bind regulatory proteins on thin filaments and expose myosin-binding sites, allowing the myosin heads on the thick filaments to attach
- Each cross bridge pivots, causing the thin filaments to slide toward the center of the sarcomere
- Contraction occurs, and the cell shortens
- During a contraction, a cross bridge attaches and detaches several times
- ATP provides the energy for the sliding process, which continues as long as calcium ions are present
What are graded responses?
- Muscle fiber contraction is “all-or-none,” meaning it will contract to its fullest when stimulated adequately
- Within a whole skeletal muscle, not all fibers may be stimulated during the same interval
- Different combinations of muscle fiber contractions may give differing responses
- Graded responses—different degrees of skeletal muscle shortening
Graded responses can be produced in which two ways?
- By changing the frequency of muscle stimulation
2. By changing the number of muscle cells being stimulated at one time