Muscles Flashcards
What are the three types of muscle tissue?
- Skeletal
- Cardiac
- Smooth
Define:
Excitability
Plasma membranes can change electrical states and send action potential along membrane length
What are the three properties of muscle tissue?
- Elasticity
- Extensibility
- Contractility
Define:
Elasticity
Allows muscle to return to original length when relaxed due to elastic fibers
Define:
Extensibility
Muscle tissue can stretch or extend
Define:
Contractility
Allows muscle tissue to pull on its attachment points and shorten with force
Define:
Epimysium
Outer sheath of dense, irregular connective tissue covering muscle
Define:
Fascicle
Bundles of muscle fibers
Define:
Sarcomere
Functional unit of skeletal muscle
What are the two key proteins that make up contractile machinery?
Actin and myosin
What happens to sarcomere structure when muscle contracts?
- A band stays the same.
- I band becomes smaller.
- Z-discs come closer together.
Define:
Myosin
- Thick filament
- Composed of globular head and long tail
Define:
Actin
- Thin filament
- Double helix, “string of pearls”
Define:
Troponin
Globular molecule attached at regular intervals to tropomyosin
Define:
Tropomyosin
Long polypeptide chain that lies in grooves between actin helices
What is the force generated by actin-myosin interaction proportional to?
The number of myosin heads that can interact with thin filament
What is the excitation portion of “excitation-contraction coupling”?
Propagation of action potential along sarcolemma
Where does the action potential travel from the sarcolemma to reach the sarcoplasmic reticulum?
The transverse-tubules (T-tubules)
What ion initiates muscle fiber contraction?
Calcium
What are the steps involved in cross-bridge cycling?
- ATP binds with myosin head, forming ADP and Pi with calcium binding to troponin.
- Myosin binds with exposed actin binding site, generating force.
- ADP and Pi released from myosin head.
- Another ATP binds to myosin.
How does muscle relaxation occur?
- Signaling from motor neuron ends and sarcolemma repolarizes
- Muscle runs out of ATP and becomes fatigued
Define:
Sliding filament theory of muscle contraction
Shortening of sarcomere results from relative movement of actin and myosin filaments past each other while each filament retains original length