Muscles Flashcards
Name the three types of muscle in the body
Cardiac, Smooth, Skeletal
Where is Smooth muscle found
walls of blood vessels and intestines
Where is Skeletal muscle found
attached to incompressible skeleton by tendons
Where is cardiac muscle found
exclusively in the heart
What does the phrase ‘antagonistic pair of muscles’ mean?
Muscles can only pull so they work in pairs to move bones around joints.
Pairs work in opposite directions: agonist contracts while antagonist is relaxed
Describe the gross structure of skeletal muscle.
Muscle cells are fused together to form bundles of parallel muscle fibres (myofibrils).
Arrangement ensures there is no point of weakness between cells.
Each bundle is surrounded by endomycium: loose connective tissue with many capillaries.
Describe the microscopic structure of skeletal muscle.
Myofibrils: site of contraction
Sarcoplasm: shared nuclei and cytoplasm lots of mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum
Sarcolemma: folds inwards towards sarcoplasm to form transverse (T) tubules.
Draw a diagram to show the ultrastructure of a myofibril
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How does each band appear under an optical microscope
I-band: light
A-band: dark
How is muscle contraction stimulated?
- Neuromuscular junction: action potential = voltage-gated Ca2+ channels open
- Vesicles movie towards & fuse with presynaptic membrane
- Exocytosis of acetylcholine (ACh), which diffuses across synaptic cleft
- ACh binds to receptors on Na+ channel proteins on skeletal muscle cell membrane
- Influc of Na+ = depolarisation
Explain the role of Ca2+ ions in muscle contraction
- Action potential moves through T-tubules in the sarcoplasm = Ca2+ channels in sarcoplasmic reticulum open
- Ca2+ binds to troponin, triggering conformational change in tropomyosin
- Exposes binding sites on actin filaments so actinomyosin bridges can form
Outline the sliding filament theory
- Myosin head with ADP attached forms cross bridge with actin
- Power stroke: myosin head changes shape & loses ADP, pulling actin over myosin
- ATP attaches to myosin head, causing it to detach from actin
- ATPase hydrolyses ATP > ADP (+Pi) so myosin head can return to original position
- Myosin head re-attaches to actin further along filament
How does sliding filament action cause a myofibril to shorten?
Myosin heads flew in opposite directions = actin filaments are pulled towards each other
Distance between adjacent sarcomere Z lines shortens
Sliding filament action occurs up to 100 times per second in multiple sarcomeres
State 4 pieces of evidence that support the sliding filament theory.
- H-zone narrows
- I-band narrows
- Z-lines get closer (sarcomere shortens)
- A-zone remains same width (proves that myosin filaments do not shorten)
What happens during muscle relaxation?
- Ca2+ is actively transported back into endoplasmic reticulum
- Tropomyosin once again blocks actin binding site