Muscle Tissue Flashcards
What are the 2 types of muslce tissue?
- striated muscle
- smooth muscle
What are the 2 subdivisions of striated muscle?
- skeletal muscle
- cardiac muscle
Comparison between Skeletal, Cardiac & Smooth muscle
What are the 2 major contractile fibers components in muscle cells?
- actin
- myosin
Which muscles control voluntary contraction?
skeletal muscles
Which muscles control involuntary contraction?
cardiac + smooth muscles
Why are connective tissues investments important in skeletal muscles?
they provide vascular + neural elements to muscle cells
Epimysium
surrounds an entire muscle
- forms aponeuroses (skeletal muscle <–> muscle)
- forms tendons (skeletal muscle <–> bone)
Perimysium
**surrounds fascicles of muscle cells **(small bundles)
Endomysium
surrounds individual muscle cells
- composed of reticular fibers + external lamina
a muscle cell (*muscle fiber) *is also called…
a multinucleated syncytium
muscle fibers develop from…?
… the fusion of small, individual muscle cells called
myoblasts
Describe a muscle cell as seen through a light microscope.
- multinucleated
- polygonal shape (transvers view)
- long, cylindrical (longitudinal view)
- enveloped by external lamina + reticular fibers
- diameter of 10-100 um (micrometers)
- nuclei lie just beneath plasma membrane
What is a good way to differentiat between connective tissue and muscle fibers?
muscle cells = cellular elements
connective tissue = extracellular products of CT cells
what is a muscle cell plasmalemma also know as?
Sarcolemma
(plasma membrane + external lamina + surrounding reticular lamina)
What are the 3 types of muscle fibers?
- Red fibers
- White fibers
- Intermediate fibers
Red Muscle Fibers
(Type 1)
- Slow contraction
- do NOT fatigue easily
- High myoglobin content
- High # of mitochondria
- High in oxidative enzymes
- Low in ATPase
White Muscle Fiber
(Type 2B)
- Fast contraction
- fatigue easily
- Low myoglobin content
- Low # of mitochondria
- Low in oxidative enzymes
- High in ATPase + phosphorylation
Intermediate Muscle Fiber
(Type 2A)
- **Intermediate **myoglobin content
- ** Intermediate **# of mitochondria
- ** Intermediate **# of oxidative enzymes
- ** Intermediate** amount of ATPase
Red Fibers:
What type of contraction?
Do they fatigue easily?
Method of ATPase production?
Red Fibers:
- slow + repetitive contraction
- do not fatigue easily
- oxidative phosphorylation (ATPase)
White Fibers:
What type of contraction?
Do they fatigue easily?
Method of ATPase production?
White Fibers:
- fast contraction
- fatigue easily
- anerobic glycolysis (ATPase)
Intermediate Fibers:
What type of contraction?
Do they fatigue easily?
Method of ATPase production?
Intermediate Fibers:
- fast contraction
- NOT easily fatigued
- oxidative phosphorylation + anerobic glycolysis (ATPase)
What is Myoglobin ?
- a protein similar to hemoglobin
- binds O2
What can change the type of muscle fibers?
Which type of fiber can change (and why would it)?
change in innervation can change a fiber type
- if a RED fiber becomes denervated, its innervation can be replaced by WHITE fiber innervation, changing it into a WHITE fiber.
Which fibers are slow-twitch motor units** ** and are integral to back posture?
red fibers
(less MUSCLE TENSION than white)
Which fibers are fast-twitch motor units and are inteegral for fine, precise movements in the digits?
white fibers
(more NEUROMUSCULAR JUNCTIONS than red)
Skeletal Muscle Structure
- “banding pattern” (alignment of myofibrils)
–> dark “A bands”
–> light “I bands” (bisected by Z discs)
What does the intermediate filament **desmin **assist with?
- holding myofibrils in alignment
(during embryonic development = Desmin + vimentin)
- connects cytoskeleton, nucleus, motor end plates, and mitochondria to myofibrils
- (distributes force of contraction –> protects structural integrity)*
What does the** plectin** assist with?
- helps hold myfibrils in alignment
- tethers adjacent Z discs to each other
what is a sarcomere?
- regular repeating region between successive Z disks
functional unit of contraction
What is the sarcomeric reticulum (SR)?
modified SER that surrounds myofilaments + forms a meshwork around each myofibril
- forms a pair of dilated terminal cisternae (encircle myofibrils at junction of each A and I band)
- regulates muscle contraction:
–> sequestering calcium ions (relaxation)
–> releasing calcium ions (contraction)
What is a triad?
specialized complexes consisting of a narrow central T tubule flanked on each side by terminal cisternae of the SR
- located at the A–I junction
- help provide uniform contraction
What are myofilaments?
thick filaments (15 nm in diameter and 1.5 um long)
+
thin filaments (7 nm in diameter and 1.0 um long)
- lie parallel to the long axis of the myofibril
- responsible for the sarcomere banding pattern
What are satellite cells?
(myoblast-like)
regenerative cells
- differentiate
- fuse with one another
- form skeletal muscle cells as needed
- probably left over from embryonic development
- lie within basal lamina of skeletal muscle cells
What is myostatin?
- protein manufactured + released by muscle cells
- restricts the size of individual skeletal muscle cells
- (so that muscle cells do not get too long or broad)*
- member of the tumor growth factor B(beta) superfamily
A bands
- anisotropic with polarized light
(different properties when observed in different directions)
- usually stain dark
- contain both thin and thick filaments, which overlap and interdigitate
- (Six thin filaments surround each thick filament)*
I bands
- isotropic with polarized light
(same properties when observed in different directions)
- appear lightly stained
- They contain only thin filaments
H bands
- light regions transecting A bands
- consist of thick filaments only.
M lines
- narrow, dark regions at the center of H bands
- formed by several cross-connections (M-bridges) at the centers of adjacent thick filaments
Z disks (lines)
- dense regions bisecting each I band
- contain a(alha)-actinin and Cap Z proteins
- (bind to thin filaments + anchor them to Z disks with help of nebulin)*
- -* peripherally located Z disks anchored to regions of sarcolemma (“costameres”) by vinculin and dystrophin
Thin filaments are composed of…?
- F-actin
- tropomyosin
- troponin
- associated proteins
F-actin
(thin filament)
polymer of G-actin monomers arranged in a double helix
- each monomer possesses an active site that can interact with myosin
- diameter of 5–7 nm
- exhibit polarity, having a (+) and a (-) end
- (plus end tethered to cap Z of the Z disk; minus end, capped by tropomodulin, is located at the H band)*
(-) end = growing end of the F-actin
- loses and gains back G-actin molecules at both its plus and minus ends (turn over rate is very slow = a few days)
Tropomyosin
(thin filament molecule)
- 40 nm in length
- bind head to tail, forming filaments that are located in the grooves of the F-actin helix
Troponin
(thin filament proteins - 3)
- associated with each tropomyosin molecule
- composed of:
–> Troponin T (TnT) forms the tail
(binding the troponin complex to tropomyosin)
–> Troponin C (TnC) 4 binding sites for calcium
(may be related to calmodulin)
–> Troponin I (TnI) binds to actin
(inhibits interaction of myosin and actin)
Identify the following structures from the image:
- M
- S
- Sr
- M = myofibrils
- S = sarcomeres
- Sr = sarcoplasm (cytoplasm of muscle cell)
Nebulin
(thin filament protein)
- long, inelastic protein
- 2 nebulin molecules wrap around each thin filament
(assist in anchoring it to the Z disk)
Tropomodulin
- caps the (-) end of each thin filament
- prevents addition of more G-actin molecules to growing end
Thick Filaments contain…?
- approximately 250 myosin II molecules
- (arranged in an antiparallel fashion)*
- three associated proteins:
–> myomesin
–> titin
–> C protein
Myosin II
- composed of 2 identical heavy chains + 2 pairs of light chains
- resembles a double-headed golf club
* at least 18 different subtypes of myosin*
Myocine II - Heavy Chains
- long rod like “tail” and a globular “head”
tails:
- wind around each other in an (alpha)-helical configuration
- function in self-assembly of myosin molecules into bipolar thick filaments
heads:
- actin-binding sites of the heads function in contraction
Myosin II - light chains
- two types; one molecule of each type is associated with the globular head of each heavy chain
Digestion of myosin
- enzyme trypsin cleaves myosin into:
- light meromyosin (part of the tail portion)
- heavy meromyosin (the two heads and the remainder of the tail) - enzyme papain cleaves the heavy meromyosin releasing the
short tail (S2 fragment)
+ two globular heads (S1 fragments)
These S1 fragments have ATPase activity but require interaction with actin to release the noncovalently bound adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and Pi
Myomesin
- protein at the M line that cross-links adjacent thick filaments
- maintains their spatial relations
C protein
- binds to thick filaments in the vicinity of M lines along much of their lengths
(between M line and end of thin filament in vicinity of the A–I junction)
*This region of the A band is referred to as the C zone*
Titin
- large linear protein that displays axial periodicity (reoccuring)
- forms an elastic lattice that parallels the thick and thin filaments,
- two titin filaments anchor each thick filament to the Z disk
- (maintains their architectural relationships to each other)*
>> amino terminal of the titin molecule spans entire thickness of the Z disk and binds to a-actinin and Z proteins.
>> within the Z disk, titin overlaps with other titin molecules from the neighboring sarcomere and probably forms bonds with them or with unidentified linker proteins
>> The carboxyl terminal of the titin molecule spans the entire M line and overlaps with titin molecules from the other half of the same sarcomere, and binds to the protein myomesin
>> Within the I band, in the vicinity of the Z disk, titin interacts with thin filaments
>> Within the A band, titin interacts with C protein
General features of cardiac muscle cells:
- contract spontaneously; display a rhythmic beat (modified by hormonal + neural stimuli -> sympathetic + parasympathetic)
- may branch at ends = connect w. adjacent cells
- contain one central nucleus (occasionally two)
- contain glycogen granules (esp. at poles of nucleus)
- sarcoplasm is rich in myoglobin
- have thick + thin filaments arranged in poorly defined myofibrils
- cross-banding pattern
- do NOT regenerate; injuries repaired by formation of fibrous CT
(scar tissue fr. fibroblasts)