Chapter 9 - Review Flashcards
describe the general properties of muscle
- Contractility 2. Excitability 3. Extensibility 4. Elasticity
Contractility
The ability of muscle to shorten forcefully
Excitability
The capacity of muscle to respond to a stimulus.
Extensibility
The muscle can be stretched beyond its normal resting length and still be able to contract
Elasticity
The ability of muscle to recoil to its original resting length after it has been stretched.
Whole Muscle
Complete organ consisting of cells, called skeletal muscle fibers, associated with smaller amounts of connective tissue, blood vessels and nerves.
Fasciculi
A bundle of skeletal muscle fibers surrounded by perimisium.
Fiber
Each skeletal fiber is a single long, cylindrical cell containing several nuclei, which are located on the periphery, near the plasma membrane. A single fiber can extend from one end of a muscle to the other.
fascia
Connective tissue sheets within the body
Perimysium
Each fasciculus is surrounded by another, heavier connective tissue layer called the perimyseum.
Epimysium
The entire muscle is surrounded by layer of connective tissue called the epimyseum. It is composed of dense collagenous connective tissue.
Endomysium
a wispy layer of areolar connective tissue that ensheaths each individual muscle fiber. It also contains capillaries and nerves. It overlies the muscle fiber’s cell membrane: the Sarcolemma.
Histology of Muscle Fibers
Skeletal muscle is made up of individual components known as myocytes, or “muscle cells”, sometimes colloquially called “muscle fibers”. They are formed from the fusion of developmental myoblasts (a type of embryonic progenitor cell that gives rise to a muscle cell) in a process known as myogenesis. These long, cylindrical, multinucleated cells are also called myofibers. The myofibers are in turn composed of myofibrils. The myofibrils are composed of actin and myosin filaments repeated in units called a sarcomere, the basic functional unit of the muscle fiber. The sarcomere is responsible for skeletal muscle’s striated appearance and forms the basic machinery necessary for muscle contraction. The term muscle refers to multiple bundles of muscle fibers held together by connective tissue.
Triad
is the structure formed by a T tubule with a sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) known as the terminal cisterna on either side
Myofiber
are the functional contractile units of skeletal muscle. Mononuclear satellite cells located between the basal lamina and the plasmalemma of the myofiber are the primary source of myogenic precursor cells in postnatal muscle.
Myofibril
very long chains of sarcomeres, the contractile units of the cell.
Myofilament
are the filaments of myofibrils constructed from proteins.
Describe the sarcomere
It is the basic structural unit and functional unit of skeletal muscle because it is the smallest portion of skeletal muscle capable of contracting. Each Sarcomere extents from one Z disk to an adjacent Z disk
Picture a Sarcomere

Sarcomere and Triad
Image

Titin
It attaches to Z disks and extends along myosin myofiliments to the M line. The myosin mycofilaments are attached to the titin molecules which help hold them in position.
Titin is a giant protein that functions as a molecular spring which is responsible for the passive elasticity of muscle.
troponin
is a complex of three regulatory proteins (troponin C, troponin I, and troponin T) that is integral to muscle contraction[2] in skeletal and cardiac muscle, but not smooth muscle.
Individual subunits serve different functions:
Troponin C binds to calcium ions to produce a conformational change in TnI Troponin T binds to tropomyosin, interlocking them to form a troponin-tropomyosin complex Troponin I binds to actin in thin myofilaments to hold the troponin-tropomyosin complex in place
tropomyosin
Each Actin Myofilament is composed of two strands of fibrous actin (F actin), a series of Tropomyosin molecules and a series of troponin molecules
The two strands of F actin are coiled to form a double helix which extends the length of the actin myofilament.
Troponin and tropomyosin regulate contraction via calcium binding
Simplified schematic of actin backbones, shown as gray chains of actin molecules (balls), covered with smooth tropomyosin filaments. Troponin is shown in red (subunits not distinguished). Upon binding calcium, troponin moves tropomyosin away from the myosin-binding sites on actin (bottom), effectively unblocking it. Modified from Lehman et al. (1994).
What does calcium bind to in regards to Excitation-contraction coupling model of muscle cells?
Calcium binds to troponin.
