Muscle Physiology Flashcards
Functions of the muscle system
- Produce skeletal movement
- Maintain posture and body position
- Support soft tissues
- Guard entrances and exits
- Maintain body temperature
- Store nutrient reserves
Functions of the muscle system: Produce skeletal movement
Skeletal muscle contractions pull on tendons and move the bones of the skeleton
Functions of the muscle system: Maintain posture and body position
Tension in skeletal muscles maintains body posture
Functions of the muscle system: Support soft tissues
Support weight of our visceral organs and shield our internal tissues from injury
Functions of the muscle system: Guard entrances and exits
Gives us voluntary control over swallowing, defecation and urination
Functions of the muscle system: Maintain body temperature
Heat released by working muscles keeps body temperature in the range needed for normal functioning
Structure of Muscle Tissue
Organisation of connective tissues - Epimysium - Perimysium - Endomysium Skeletal muscle (organ) Muscle Fascicle/Bindle (bundle of fibres) Muscle fibre (cell)
Structure of Muscle Tissue: Epimysium
Dense layer of collagen fibres that surrounds entire muscle. Separates muscle from nearby tissues and organs
Structure of Muscle Tissue: Perimysium
Divides the skeletal muscle into a series of compartments. Contains blood vessels and nerves
Structure of Muscle Tissue: Endomysium
Surrounds individual skeletal muscle cells, called muscle fibres and loosely interconnects adjacent muscle fibres. Contains blood vessels
Skeletal Muscle Fibres (Distinctive Features)
- Diameter from 100micrometres to 30cm
- Multinucleate
Skeletal Muscle Fibres: Sarcolemma
- Surrounds sarcoplasm
- Has characteristic transmembrane potential due to the unequal distribution of positive and negative charges across the membrane (sudden change in transmembrane potential can lead to a contraction)
- All regions of cell must contract at the same time and therefore, signal must be distributed quickly
- Signal is conducted through transverse tubules
Skeletal Muscle Fibres: Transverse Tubules
- Narrow tubes that are continuous with the sarcolemma and extend deep into the sarcoplasm
- Filled with extracellular fluid and form passageways through the muscle fibre
Skeletal Muscle Fibres: Myofibrils
- Can actively shorten and are responsible for skeletal muscle fibre contraction
- 1-2 micrometre in diameter and as long as the entire cell
- Consist of myofilaments
> thin filaments: actin
> thick filaments: myosin
- titin
Skeletal Muscle Fibres: Sarcoplasmic reticulum
- forms tubular network around each individual myofibril
Skeletal Muscle Fibres: Sarcomeres
- Myofilaments are organised into repeating functional units called sarcomeres
- Smallest, functional units of muscle fibres
- Myofibril consists of about 10000 sarcomeres, each with a resting length of about 2micrometres.
- Contains thick filaments, think filaments, a protein to stabilise the positions of filaments and proteins that regulate the interactions between thick and thin filaments
- A band
- I Band
- Thin filaments
- Thick filaments
Sarcomeres: A Band
- Dark bands
- As long as typical thick filament and includes portions of thin filaments, contains 3 subdivisions
Sarcomeres: A Band: M line
Proteins of the M line connect the central portion of each thick filament. Help stabilise the positions of the thick filaments
Sarcomeres: A Band: H Band
In resting sarcomere, H band is a lighter region on either side of the M line. Only contains thick filaments
Sarcomeres: A Band: Zone of overlap
Dark region where thin filaments are located between thick filaments
Sarcomeres: I Band
Only contains thin filaments and extends from the A band of one sarcomere to the A band of the next sarcomere
- Z lines
- Titin
Sarcomeres: I Band: Z Lines
Mark boundary between adjacent sarcomeres, consist of proteins called actinins
Sarcomeres: I Band: Titin
Extend from tips of the thick filaments to attachment sites at the Z line
Sarcomeres: Thin Filaments
- Four proteins: F-actin, nebulin, tropomyosin and troponin
- Tropomyosin cover active sites on G-actin subunits that form the F-actin strand
- Troponin binds to G-actin and tropomyosin and holds the tropomyosin in position
Sarcomeres: Thick Filaments
- Consist of a bundle of myosin molecules around a titin core
- Each myosin molecule: long tail and globular head which forms cross-bridges with a thin filament during contraction