Histology of Cardiac and Smooth Muscle Flashcards
Describe the shape and main characteristic of muscle fibers.
Elongated cells containing a great number of cytoplasmic filaments.
What primordial tissue do muscle fibres originate from? Summarize the differentiation process.
Mesoderm
Differentiation occurs by a process of cell lengthening and synthesis of myofibrillar proteins.
Name the three types of muscle tissue
- Skeletal striated muscle
- Smooth muscle
- Cardiac muscle
Answer the following about the three classes of muscle:
A) Voluntary or involuntary?
B) Striated or non-striated?
Skeletal striated muscle
* Striated
* Voluntary
Smooth muscle
* Non-striated
* Involuntary
Cardiac muscle
* Striated
* Involuntary
Describe the cross-sectional appearance (nucleus, myofibrils) of the three classes of muscle fibres.
Skeletal striated muscle
*Peripherally located nuclei
* Myofibrils are seen in cross-section
Smooth muscle
* Centrally located nucleus
* Myofibrils are not seen in cross-section
Cardiac muscle
* Centrally located nucleus
* Myofibrils are seen in cross-section
Describe the differences in contraction of each muscle class.
Skeletal striated
* Contraction is quick, forceful and usually under voluntary control
Smooth muscle
* Contraction is slow and not subject to voluntary control
* Wall of GI tract, blood vessels, uterus
Striated cardiac muscle
* Contraction is involuntary, vigorous and rhythmic
What is the principal adaptation of each muscle class in response to increased workload, demand or stress?
Skeletal striated muscle:
* Hypertrophy (increase in size)
Smooth muscle
* Hyperplasia (increase in number)
Cardiac muscle
* Hypertrophy (increase in size)
What is the most abundant muscle type in our body?
Skeletal muscle
How are skeletal muscle fibres attached to connective tissue?
They are attached to connective tissue collagen by junctional complexes, which are associated with the infolding of the sarcolemma (plasma membrane).
What are the names of the plasma membrane and cytoplasm of muscle fibres?
Plasma membrane = sarcolemma
Cytoplasm = sarcoplasm
What type of junction is formed by junctional complexes?
Musculotendinous junction
Name the 3 layers of connective tissue that organize skeletal muscle fibres.
Epimysium
Perimysium
Endomysium
Describe the junctional complexes.
At the ends of the striated skeletal cell are finger-like projections: they are made of actin filaments that insert into dense structures located on the inner side of the plasma membrane. The external side of this plasma membrane is covered by basement membrane which is attached to the collagen fibres of the tendon (aponeuroses).
What is the endomysium? Name its 3 components
Thin layer of connective tissue that surrounds each individual muscle fibres.
It consists of 3 main components:
- Basement membrane (basal lamina), which lies directly against the fibre’s sarcolemma
- Reticular elastic fibrils (collagen type III) and elastic fibres
- Capillaries, embedded in the endomysium
What is a fascicle?
Bundles of skeletal muscle fibres grouped together within a muscle.
What is the perimysium?
It is the layer of connective tissue that surrounds skeletal muscle fascicles (bundles of fibres).
What is the epimysium?
It is the layer of dense connective tissue that surrounds the entire skeletal muscle.
What is the length and diameter of skeletal muscle fibres?
1-40mm in length and 10-100um in diameter.
Explain why skeletal muscle fibres are multinucleated?
They arise from the embryonic fusion of uninucleated myoblasts.
What are satellite cells?
Specialized small stem cells located between the sarcolemma and basement membrane of skeletal muscle fibres.
What is the role of satellite cells?
When needed, the satellite cell can double its nucleus by mitotic division and transfer one nucleus across the sarcolemma into the muscle fibre, while the second nucleus remains in the satellite cell.
What are the 3 major organelles of skeletal muscle fibres?
- Myofibrils
- Mitochondria
- Smooth endoplasmic reticulum
What are the 3 types of muscle fibres mixed to varying degrees in each skeletal muscle? How are they distinguished?
Red, white and intermediate muscle fibres.
They are distinguished based on the amount of mitochondria and myoglobin, an oxygen-binding protein, in each type of fibre.
Which fibre type contains more mitochondria and myoglobin?
a) red fibres
b) intermediate fibres
c) white fibres
Which type contains the least mitochondria and myoglobin?
Most: a) red fibres
Least: c) white fibres
Which fibre type is smaller than the other?
a) red fibres
b) white fibres
a) red fibres are smaller than white fibres
Describe how the 2 types of skeletal muscle fibres (red, white) functions. Where are they more prevalent?
Red fibres
* Slow-twitch motor units
* Resistant to fatigue
* Postural muscles of the limbs and back
White fibres
* Fast-twitch motor units
* Fatigue rapidly
* Give strong contractions
* Leg and arm muscles, chicken breast
Within the sarcoplasm of skeletal muscle fibres are several hundred to several thousand…
myofibrils (1-2 um in diameter) organized in parallel bundles
Each myofibril is made up of…
- 1500 thick filaments (myosin)
- 3000 thin filaments (F-actin)
Name the two types of contractile proteins in skeletal muscle.
Myosin
Actin
What is a sarcomere?
The sarcomere is the fundamental contractile unit of striated muscle, that enables muscle contraction. It extends from Z line to Z line (2-3 um).
What are Z lines? What are M lines?
Z lines: Boundaries of a sarcomere where thin filaments (actin) are anchored.
M lines: At the centre of the sarcomere, where thick filaments (myosin) are anchored.
What produces the characteristic appearance of striated muscle under the microscope?
Regularly spaced light and dark bands of each sarcomere.
What is the A band? Does it appear anisotropic or isotropic under the microscope?
Region of the sarcomere spanning the entire length of thick filaments, including the overlap with thin filaments.
It appears anisotropic (i.e. dark) under the microscope.
What are I bands? Do they appear anisotropic or isotropic under the microscope?
Regions of the sarcomere flanking the A bands, made up of thin filaments and cut down their middle by the Z lines (no overlap with thick filaments).
Each sarcomere contains a central … which is flanked by…
Each sarcomere contains a central A band which is flanked by two “half” I bands.
What is the H zone?
The region immediately adjacent to each M line, where thin and thick filaments do not overlap (thick filaments only).
Which sarcomere regions change during muscle contraction? Which stay the same?
During muscle contraction, the thin and thick filaments slide past each other, either increasing or decreasing the overlap.
During contraction, the A bands will remain the same size, while the I band and H zone will decrease in size.
Describe the composition of thick filaments.
Thick filaments consist of ~400 myosin molecules.
Each myosin molecule is a dimer of tightly intertwined heavy polypeptide chains, i.e. the body or tail.
Each of the two polypeptide chains is attached to a globular head via a short elastic stalk.
What type of myosin makes up the body/tail of myosin molecules?
What type of myosin makes up the elastic stalk and head of myosin molecules?
Body/tail: L-meromyosin (LMM)
Elastic stalk and head: H-meromyosin (HMM)
*Note: The elastic stalk consists of the S-2 subtype of HMM and the head consists of the S-1 subtype of HMM.
A pair of …. is associated with each of the two globular heads of myosin dimers (thick filaments), for a total of…
A pair of light polypeptide chains (L1 and L2), for a total of 4 light chains associated with a double-head of a myosin dimer.
What type of binding sites are on the myosin heads of thick filaments (3)
- Specific binding sites for actin
- ATP receptor site
- Catalytic site capable of hydrolyzing ATP
What protein helps anchor thick filaments to the Z line?
Thin elastic filaments composed of the protein titin.
What are the 3 structural proteins that make up actin filaments? What is their ratio in skeletal muscle?
Actin (major structural protein)
Tropomyosin and troponin (regulatory proteins).
7:1:1
Describe the composition of thin filaments.
Each F-actin (fibrous) polymer is composed of ~300 G-actin monomers (globular subunits) that form a long chain.
Two fibrous actin (F-actin) polymers wind around each other to form a double-stranded coil.
Tropomyosin is also a double-stranded twisted molecule that runs down the to grooves of the F-actin helix.