Muscles Flashcards
Tissue types, compositions, theory of movement
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Attributes of muscles
Contract - generate movement in and of the body
Extensible - they can be stretched
Elastic - passively resists stretching, no E needed
Excitable - can have an electrical signal run through them
Contractile - uses E to generate forceful contractions
Action Potential
An electrical signal that travels along a cell.
Neurons → muscle cell
Tissue Types
Skeletal - strucute + stability
Cardiac - heart only
Smooth - organs, GI tract, etc.
Skeletal muscle attributes
Attached to bones
Moves body parts
Voluntary movement controlled by the motor cortex
Fibers are multinucleated , large, cylindrical in shape + striated
Somatic Motor Neurons
Neurons that leave the CNS to stimulate skeletal muscle contraction
Cardiac Muscle Attributes
Only in the heart
Cells are branching
Have intercalated discs
Striated
Autorythmic
Involuntary
Intercalated Discs
Protein structures in cardiac muscle that separate cells and allow AP to spread between cells
Smooth Muscle Attributes
Not striated
Involuntary
Sometimes autorythmic
Cells are spindle shaped
No epimysium
Have endomysium around cells
Some can be controlled by the hypothalamus
Doesn’t need a change in the membrane potential to contract
Striated vs Smooth
Muscle
Striated: Organized bands of proteins that generate movement (sarcomeres)
Smooth: Have similar proteins to generate movement that don’t line up.
Sarcomeres
Protein complexes composed of myosin, actin, z-discs, titin, and m-lines to generate contractions in muscle cells.
Myosin
The motor protein that generates contractions in striated muscle.
Has a head and long tail (not going to see it alone)
Myosin Thick Fillament
Big thick fiber with many myosin molecules wrapped together with the heads sticking out of the sides to face opposite directions.
The heads are responsible for pulling towards the midline.
Actin Thin Filaments
Several actin molecules surround each myosin thick filament.
The heads of myosin filaments grab onto the actin + pull.
Z-Disc
Protein complexes on either side of a sarcomere.
Actin filaments are attached to the disk,
when myosin pulls on actin → z-discs are pulled closer together.
M-line
Located in the middle of the sarcomeres to hold myosin thick filaments in place + is attaches to the plasma membrane.
Sliding Filament Theory
How sarcomeres contract:
Myosin and actin filaments slide past each other, heads on opposite ends of myosin pull actin in the opposite direction
Myosin heads pull actin toward the M-line, Actin is attached to z-discs, myosin thick filament heads with actin pull z-discs toward each other, z-discs are attached to the plasma membrane so the entire cell contracts.
10,000 sarcomeres contracting = muscle contraction
Steps of Sarcomere Contraction
- Myosin head forms a cross-bridge with actin
- Power stroke - Releases ATP
- Myosin head binds ATP + releases actin
- ATP → ADP + Pi gets energy out
Uses energy to cock head (think of cocking a gun) - Cycle repeats
+ Next time a myosin head grabs the actin further down
+ All the heads on one myosin pull on actin together
+ Some heads are holding actin at any time
Myosin uses ATP for energy
Myoson head is pulling on the actin filament
Crossbridge
The attachment between myosin head + actin.
Power stroke
When a myosin head swings back and pulls actin with it.
A-Band
DArk band = myosin thick filaments all lined up
Striation band
I-Band
LIght band = space between adjacent myosin thick filaments
Striation band
Z-disc is in the middle of the I-Band
What happens to striation bands during contractions?
A-Band: doesn’t change size - do get closer together
I-Bands: get shorter - as sarcomeres contract, myosins pull closer so there’s less space between them
Muscle Fiber
Components
- Sarcomere
- Myofibril
- Saracoplasm
- Sarcoplasmic Reticulum
- Sarcolemma
- T-tubules
- Satelite cells
Myofibril
A bundle of sarcomeres lined up one after another.
Sarcoplasm
Cytoplasm of skeletal muscle fibers
Sarcoplasmic Reticulum
Specialized smooth ER in skeletal muscle cells that surround myofibrils & are full of Ca++.
Sarcolemma
Skeletal muscle’s plasma membrane.
T-Tubules
Tubes that act as extensions of sarcolemma by making contact with the sarcoplasmic reticulum. Visible tubes going down into cell skeletal muscle cells.
Where does a muscle action potential travel in a muscle fiber?
Travels along sarcolemma + down T-tubules.
Satellite cells
Little cells that sit around muscle fibers, located next to the sarcolemma.
When muscle cell grows or is damaged, the satellite cells merge with muscle cells + become part of the cells, making muscle bigger (why skeletal muscle tissue is multinucleated)
Skeletal Muscle Organ
Components
A muscle
Many muscle fibers bundled into fascicles with other connective tissues.
* Dense irregular tissue membranes
* Blood vessels
* Motor neurons
* White blood cells
* Sensory neurons
Fascicle
Multiple muscle fibers bound together.
Many bound together create an organ.
Endomesium
Connective tissue that surrounds muscle fibers.
gives muscle some elasticity
Perimysium
Connective tissue that surrounds fascicles.
gives muscle some elasticity