Muscles Flashcards
What is cardiac muscle?
Contracts without conscious control - only found in the heart
What is smooth muslce?
Contracts without conscious control - found in the walls of internal organs e.g. stomach, intestine, blood vessels
What is skeletal muscle?
Voluntary muscle, used to move e.g. biceps and triceps
What is skeletal muscle also known as?
Striated, Striped, Voluntary muscle
What is skeletal muscle made up of?
Long cells - called muscle fibres
What is the cell membrane of the muscle fibre called?
Sarcolemma
What are transverse (T) tubules?
Where parts of the sarcolemma fold inwards all across the muscle fibre - they stick into the sarcoplasm.
What is the sarcoplasm?
The muscle fibres cytoplasm.
What do T tubules help do?
They help spread electrical impulses throughout the sarcoplasm. This is so that they reach all parts of the muscle fibre.
What is the sarcoplasmic reticulum?
It is a network of internal membranes which run through the sarcoplasm.
What does the sarcoplasmic reticulum do?
It stores and releases calcium ions - needed for muscle contraction.
What do muscle fibres have lots of and why?
Mitchondria - to provide the ATP needed for muscle contraction.
What are multinucleate?
Muscle fibres
Muscle fibres have lots of long cylindrical ORGANELLES… what are they called?
Myofibrils
What are myofibrils made up of?
proteins
Myofibrils are highly specialised for what?
Contraction
What do myofibrils contain?
Bundles of thick and thin myofilaments
What do the myofilaments do to make muscles contract?
The myofilaments move past each other
What are the thick myofilaments made up of?
The protein - myosin
What are the thin myofilaments made up of?
The protein - actin
What can you see when looking at a myofibril under an electron microscope?
A pattern of alternating dark and light bands.
What do the dark bands show in a myofibril - under an electron microscope?
The thick myosin filaments + some overlapping thin actin filaments
These are called A-bands
dArk bands
What do the light bands show in a myofibril - under an electron microscope?
Contain only the thin actin filaments
These are called I-bands