Lecture 12: Skeletal Muscle Flashcards
Exam 2
Skeletal muscle is the largest _____?
- The largest contributor to body weight and volume in non-obese people
- Largest container we have within the body
- Need them to behave normally otherwise things get screwed up, very important
How can anesthetics affect skeletal muscle?
We take a lot of skeletal muscles offline with anesthetics
- Volatile anesthetics - reduce amount of muscle activity
- Paralytics - take the skeletal muscles offline
What are the 8 roles of skeletal muscle
- Largest contributor to body weight and volume in non-obese people
- Locomotion
- Expression
- Communication
- Body temp
- Storage of glycogen
- “Effectors”/neural targets
- Large store of ions, fluid, and proteins
The vast majority of skeletal muscle cells are innervated by how many motor neurons?
Just one
One motor neuron can innervate multiple skeletal muscle cells, very large and branch multiple times
A collection of muscle fibers
Motor unit
What is an example of a skeletal muscle cell that is innervated with more than one motor neuron?
ocular muscles in the eye socket
Where are the cell bodies of motor neurons located?
The anterior horn of the grey matter of the spinal cord
A single neuron that innervates a motor unit
Motor Neuron
- Small mu’s=small mn’s
- Large mu’s=large mn’s
What are the 2 ways to excite motor neurons?
- Descending spinal pathways originating from the brain
- Reflex arcs - sensory info fed into the back of the cord that results in a muscle contraction at the same level of the spinal cord (without traveling back to the brain) so that muscle contraction can occur quickly to withdraw from pain
What is another name for a skeletal muscle cell?
Muscle fiber
What are the contractile elements of skeletal muscle cells? How are they arranged?
Actin and myosin filaments - arranged in tube-like structures
What is the specialized version of the ER called in skeletal muscle cells?
Sarcoplasmic reticulum - sarco = muscle, more developed ER
Where do skeletal muscle cells store Ca++?
The sarcoplasmic reticulum - needs Ca++ for contraction (release internally)
What are transverse tubules? Why are they needed?
An extension of the skeletal muscle cells that allows an AP to move deep into the muscle cells (enfolding); invaginations of the cell membrane
Needed because skeletal muscle cells can be very long (can be over a foot long) and are fairly wide/thick
What are the 4 components of skeletal muscle cells
- Sarcoplasm
- Sarcoplasmic reticulum
- Transverse Tubules - AKA T Tubules
- Actin/myosin filaments
What do we need to know for exam 2 about sarcomere anatomy?
Just need to know that contraction shortens the muscle
Fluid inside muscle cells (like cytoplasm)
Sarcoplasm
What are the structures noted in the picture
Microscopic view of skeletal muscle cells
- Each branch of motor neurons takes care of innervation for skeletal muscle fibers
- Each fiber has NMJ associated with it (balls in pic)
- Some only have one motor neuron for several skeletal muscle cells
- Have zebra-like (cross-hatch) pattern because of actin and myosin filaments
What are the invaginations that increase N-M junction surface area?
Clefts
What are the 2 types of clefts on the skeletal muscle cell?
- Primary: only one enfolding
- Secondary: more than one enfolding
What is located in the membrane of skeletal muscle clefts?
ACh receptors towards the surface of the cleft, closer to the neuron
Concentrated V-G Na+ channels on the inside of clefts and the other side of ACh-R
What surrounds motor neurons?
Wrapped in myelin, maintained by Schwann cells that hang out at the terminal end of motor neurons; Schwann cells manage the myelin in the motor neuron back to the spinal cord
What is the role of mitochondria in the NMJ?
The skeletal muscle cells and motor neurons both have a lot of mitochondria located near the NMJ
mitochondria in the presynaptic terminal produce acetate. Acetate combines with recycled choline into acetylcholine (ACh)
How many ACh-R are there? How many are activated during an AP? How much ACh is needed?
ACh receptors - have 5 million at each NMJ
- About 500,00 activated during a typical AP ~10%
- Need to be producing at least 1,000,000 ACh from motor neuron - usually twice that in reality
Why is more ACh released than what is needed by the motor neuron?
- Some get broken down by AChesterase before reaching receptors
- Some bind to receptors and only have 1 ACh molecule bound and therefore can’t activate the receptor (need 2 ACh)
What is the function of AChesterase?
Breaks down ACh via hydrolysis (ACh → acetyl + choline)
Once broken down to acetyl and choline, no more effect on the ACh receptors
Limits length of depolarization from motor neuron - finite time period so resetting can happen
What does the motor neuron do with acetyl and choline after AChesterase breaks apart ACh?
Choline is moved back into motor neuron via choline-sodium transporter and Choline ATPase pumps
Acetyl recycled too but not as much known about mechanism
Where is AChesterase produced and housed?
Produced by the skeletal muscle and fastened to skeletal muscle at the NMJ
What are other ways to describe acetyl?
Acetate, a very small starch group
How are acetate and choline made in the motor neuron?
- Mitochondria produces acetate and ATP
- Can store extra choline in cell wall (phosphatidylcholine)
What is underneath the NMJ and clefts in the skeletal muscle?
Contractile elements - myosin and actin