Muscle Structure Ans Neuromuscular Junction Flashcards
What are the three types of muscle tissue?
Skeletal smooth and cardiac muscle
Is all muscle tissue excitable
Yes
Is all muscle tissue extensible
Yes
Is all muscle tissue under voluntary control
No, only skeletal muscle is under voluntary control
Is skeletal muscle tissue only under voluntary control
No, skeletal muscle can be controlled voluntarily or unconsciously, like the activation of the diaphragm and postural control muscles
Which muscle structure is the myocyte?
Each individual muscle fiber found in a muscle fascicle is a myocyte or muscle cell
What element of muscle structure gives the muscle it’s strength
The bundling of thousands of muscle fibers with its connective tissue
What is the sarcolemma of a myocyte?
The cell membrane
What are T tubules in the muscle fiber
Tiny tunnels that project downwards from the surface into the center of the muscle fiber
What is the cytoplasm of a myocyte called?
Sarcoplasm
What is the smooth endoplasmic reticulum of a myocyte called and what is its function?
Sarco plasmic reticulum, and it stores calcium to be released into the sarcoplasm to cause contraction of the myocyte
What are the long filaments found in the sarcoplasm?
Myofibrils
(Thin Actin and thick myosin)
What are sarcomeres
Segments of myofibrils with actin and myosin, filaments, arranged into segments shorter than the length of the myocyte
Why does skeletal muscle appear striated under a microscope?
Each myocyte is made up of hundreds of sarcomeres, and under a microscope, the myosin filaments look dark, while the actin filaments look light
What is a motor neuron?
And efferent nerve cell that sends motor signals from the brain down through the spinal cord and out from the spinal cord to the target muscle
What neurotransmitter is released at the neuromuscular junction by the motor neuron
Acetyl choline
What happens when the motor neuron releases acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction?
Acetylcholine is taken up by acetylcholine receptors on the sarcolemma, which causes rapid shifts in ions to occur across the sarcolemma and down the T tubules to bring calcium into the Myocyte. Then the sarcoplasmic reticulum releases its own calcium into the sarcoplasm
The calcium flow into the myocyte causes the actin and myosin to bind and pull in on each other. This causes thousands of sarcomeres within each myocyte to contract all at once.
How is the Sarco plasmic reticulum involved in the relaxation of muscle contraction?
After a muscle contraction, the sarcoplasmic reticulum takes up the calcium ions and stores them again, and without calcium, the contraction ends, and the muscle relaxes
Is cardiac muscle tissue under voluntary control
No
Is cardiac muscle tissue striated
Yes
Do cardio myocytes have T-tubules, Sarcoplasmic reticulum, and sarcomeres like the skeletal muscle
Yes
What is the function of intercalated discs in cardiac muscle tissue?
To connect the cardio myocyte to adjacent cardio myocytes
What are pacemaker cells?
Specialized cardio myocytes that generate and conduct action potentials in the cardiac muscle tissue
What allows for coordinated contraction of cardiac muscle tissue?
As cardiac pacemaker cells generate an action potential, the action potential spreads to neighboring cardio, myocytes since ions can flow through intercalated discs to spread the action potential and cause coordinated contraction of cardiac muscle tissue
Is smooth muscle under voluntary control
No
Is smooth muscle striated
No, there are thick and thin myofilaments in the sarcoplasm of smooth muscle, but they are not organized into sarcomeres, and do not look striated under a microscope
Is skeletal muscle multi nucleated, or have only one nucleus in each muscle fiber
Multi nucleated
Is cardiac muscle multi nucleated, or have only one nucleus in each myocyte
One nucleus
Is smooth muscle multi nucleated or is there only one nucleus in each myocyte?
One nucleus
Where is smooth muscle found
In the walls of hollow organs, like the small and large intestines, the bladder, the uterus and blood vessels
What is the general path of an action potential in a motor neuron?
The cerebral cortex of the brain sends an action potential in an upper motor, neuron down through the spinal cord, where it activates a lower motor neuron in the anterior horn of the spinal cord, which sends the action potential through the axon of the lower motor neuron to its axon terminals to the neuromuscular junction where it meets the muscle fibers innervated by the motor neuron
What is the neuromuscular junction?
The synapse where the axon terminals meet the muscle fibers, they will innervate
What are the three main parts of the neuromuscular junction?
A pre-synaptic membrane(membrane of the axon terminal), a postsynaptic membrane(membrane of the skeletal muscle fiber, a.k.a. motor, end plate,), and the synaptic cleft (gap between the pre-and post synaptic membrane)
What happens when an action potential reaches the axon terminal at the neuromuscular junction to cause the release of acetylcholine
It stimulates voltage gated calcium channels in the membrane to open and extracellular calcium ions flow into the lower motor neuron which causes synaptic vesicles in the axon terminals to release the neurotransmitter acetylcholine into the synaptic cleft
What happens when acetylcholine is released into the synaptic cleft of the neuromuscular junction to cause depolarization of the postsynaptic membrane?
The acetyl choline, then diffusers quickly to the motor and plate on the muscle. Fiber to acetylcholine molecules, will bind to one ligand gated ion channel (a nicotinic receptor) these ligand gated ion channels, open sodium ions, rush into the skeletal muscle, fiber, and a few potassium ions leak out of the cell. This result in an increase in positive charge on the inside of the muscle fiber, and therefore, on the inside of the membrane relative to the outside of the membrane or depolarization of the postsynaptic membrane.
What does depolarization on the postsynaptic membrane do to the resting membrane potential
Depolarization on the postsynaptic membrane is called an end plate potential and it makes the resting potential of the cell membrane less negative
What happens if depolarization on the postsynaptic membrane reaches the threshold for voltage gated sodium ion channels to open?
These channels open, and there is a huge influx of sodium ions into the muscle fiber this leads to a generation of an action potential that rapidly spreads along the entire membrane and gets the entire muscle fiber to contract
What is an end plate potential?
Depolarization of the postsynaptic membrane of the neuromuscular junction
What happens when the signal sent from the lower motor neuron stops?
Voltage gated calcium channels on the pre-synaptic membrane, close the influx of calcium ions stop the synaptic, vesicles full of acetylcholine stay in the axon terminal and acetylcholine molecules left behind within the synaptic cleft are degraded by an enzyme, called acetylcholineesterase into choline and acetate
What happens to the acetate and choline degraded by acetylcholine esterase in the synaptic cleft
The acetate diffusers out from the synaptic cleft, while choline, is taken back into the axon terminal where it’s reused by the enzyme, acetylcholine transferase to make new acetylcholine molecules
How many neuromuscular junctions does each skeletal muscle fiber have
One each skeletal muscle fiber has only one neuromuscular junction so that means that each muscle cell is controlled by one lower motor neuron
How can the axon of a lower motor neuron innervate multiple muscle fibers?
The axon of a lower motor neuron splits into many branches, and each of these branches can innervate multiple adjacent muscle fibers
What is a motor unit?
The lower motor neuron and all the muscle fibers it innervates form a single motor unit and an average one motor neuron innervates 150 skeletal muscle fibers
What dictates the number of skeletal muscle fibers that are innervated by one motor neuron
The precision of the muscle, they control muscles that control precise. I movements consist of many relatively small motor units where every lower motor neuron innervates only 10 to 15 muscle fibers large muscles like the biceps brachii muscle found in your upper arm can have up to 2000 muscle fibers within a single motor unit.
Small motor, neurons, innervate_______muscle fibers
Few
Since small motor neurons have the________ Threshold’s, they fire first
Lowest
The size principle states that___________ motor units are recruited greater tension will develop
More
Large motor neurons innervate___________ muscle fibers
Many
What is an alpha motor neuron
This is another name for a lower motor neuron which relays an action potential from the anterior horn of the spinal cord through an axon to the target, skeletal muscle tissue
What are proprioceptor’s
They are sensory receptors that detect the position and movement of skeletal muscles
What are extrafusal muscle fibers?
Muscle fibers on the outside of the muscle that are innervated by lower motor neurons and provide most of the force during a muscle contraction, the attached to bones with tendons, which are a specific type of connective tissue
What are Golgi tendon organs?
Proprioceptor’s found in muscle tendons that lie at the ends of extrafusal muscle fibers
What are muscle spindles?
Proprioceptor is found within extrafusal muscle fibers
How are Golgi tendon organs and muscle spindles similar and different?
Golgi tendon organs and muscle spindles are both proprioceptor’s sensory receptors that detect the position and movement of skeletal muscles
Differences are that Golgi tendon organs are found in the tendons and detect muscle tension. Muscle spindles are found in extrafusal muscle fibers and detect muscle length
What are intra-fusel muscle fibers
Muscle fibers on the inside of the muscle spindle that have contractile proteins like actin and myosin only on the ends of the intrafusal muscle fibers so only the ends of the intrafusal muscle fibers contract
What types of sensory neurons, fire and relay information about intrafusal fiber stretch
Type one a and type two neurons
What is the role of gamma motor neurons?
Gamma motor neurons caused the end regions of the intrafusal muscle fibers to contract, which shortens and keeps it taut
Using the patellar reflex as an example, how does the stretch reflex work?
When the patellar tendon is tapped, it, stretches the extrafusal muscle fibers, and the muscle spindles
The stretched muscle tendon causes an increase in the rate of the action, potential’s being fired by the muscle, spindle and traveling through type one a and type two sensory fibers, which relay that message to cells in the spinal cord
Type 1a fibers synapse with alpha motor neurons on the leg extensors and caused these muscles to contract, which prevents damage from over stretching
At the same time, the type to fibers trigger the firing of the interneurons, which inhibits the alpha motor neurons of the leg, flexor muscles, causing them to relax the leg kicks out, and the extensor muscles are shortened
Are deep tendon reflexes like the patellar reflex controlled by the brain
No, the efferent and afferent signals are not sent or received by the brain. The entire process happens very quickly, and is controlled at the level of the spinal cord.
Does shortening or stretching of the muscle spindles trigger a reflex
Stretching (lengthening)
What is the process of alpha-gamma, co-activation?
The alpha motor neuron, a.k.a. lower motor neuron stimulates, extrafusal muscle fiber contraction, while the adjacent gamma motor neuron is stimulated to cause the contraction of the intrafusal muscle fibers in the muscle spindle, making them shorten as the muscle shortens
What is the function of alpha-gamma coactivation?
It maintains the tension of the muscle spindles and keeps themsensitive to stretch even when your muscles are contracted andprevents damage from overstretching.
What is the function of the Golgi tendon reflex?
Prevents damage from over-contraction of the muscles
How do Golgi tendon organs prevent muscle damage from over contractionof the muscles?
Golgi tendon organs (GTO) are proprioceptors found in the tendonsthat detect muscle tension. When a muscle shortens duringcontraction, the GTO in the muscle tendon gets compressed and firesoff action potentials that travel through sensory afferent fibers to thespinal cord to synapse with an inhibitory interneuron that synapse withthe alpha motor neuron of the contracting muscle and stimulatoryinterneurons of the antagonist muscles to cause some relaxation of thecontracting muscle and contraction of the antagonist muscle limitingthe tension generated in the initial muscle contraction, functioning as anegative feedback mechanism
Alpha (lower) motor neurons innervate __________ skeletal muscle fibers
extrafusal
_________ motor neurons innervate intrafusal skeletal muscle fibers
Gamma
The general function of the muscle spindle is to sense muscle ________.
Length
Alpha and gamma motor neurons coactivate so that muscle spindles remainsensitive when the muscle is _________________
Contracted
Muscle spindles are composed of __________ muscle fibers
Intrafusal
Muscle spindles run in _________________ with extrafusal muscle fibers
Parallel
When muscle is stretched, the increase in length of the intrafusal fibersactivates sensory afferent fibers from groups _________________
Ia and II
The function of the gamma motor neurons is to maintain the sensitivity ofthe ________ muscle fibers they innervate
Intrafusal