Muscles and Nerves Flashcards
What are the 3 phases of muscle contraction?
1) Latent Period (between action potential and contraction)
2) Contraction phase (Tension is increasing and cytosolic Ca2+ increasing)
3) Relaxation Period (Tension is decreasing and cytosolic Ca2+ decreasing)
What are the 5 types of muscle?
1) Pennant
2) Fusiform
3) Convergent
4) Parallel
5) Circular
Name the 4 glial cells in CNS and brief function:
1) Astrocytes: Exchange between the blood and the nerve cells
2) Oligodendocytes: Myelination, can myelinate more than one axon at once
3) Microglia: Macrophages
4) Ependyma cells: Dilated cells that secrete cerebro spinal fluid, lining cells
Name the 3 types of neurones:
1) Multipolar : dendritic tree (motor neurones)
2) Uni polar (pseudounipolar): Axon splits into 2, no clear dendrites (Sensory neurones)
3) Bi polar, 2 axons, in sensory structures
What factors affect speed of nerve conductance velocity (NCV)?
1) Extent of Myelination
2) Relative diameter of muscle fibre
What factors affect speed of nerve conductance?
1) Extent of Myelination
2) Relative diameter of muscle fibre
What factors affect strength of muscle contraction?
1) Length of sarcomere (optimum overlap of myosin and actin filaments)
2) Number of/size of motor units stimulated
3) Number of action potentials
Sarcomere H zone?
Only myosin filaments (shortens on contraction)
Sarcomere A band?
Complete length of myosin filaments (stays same on contraction)
Sarcomere I band?
Only actin filaments (shortens on contraction)
Sarcomere Z line? What attaches this to myosin filmanets?
Z line attaches actin filaments together, Giant protein titan (connectin) attaches the Z line to myosin filaments
Sarcomere M line?
Middle of H zone, M lines get closer together on contraction
What are the glial cells in the PNS?
1) Schwann cells: Myelination, can only myelinate one portion of an axon at once
2) Satellite cells: surround cell bodies in ganglia, similar to astrocytes
What are the glial cells in the PNS?
1) Schwann cells: Myelination, can only myelinate one portion of an axon at once
2) Satellite cells: surround cell bodies in ganglia, similar to astrocytes
How are unmyelinated axons supported?
Supported by neighbouring Schwann cells
What are the gaps in myelinated axons called?
Nodes of Ranvier
What are the 2 types of ganglia in the body?
Sensory ganglia (cell bodies of sensory neurones) Autonomic ganglia (cell bodies of efferent neurones: where sympathetic nerves can synapse)
What are ganglia?
Nodular masses of neuronal cell bodies and supporting neuroglia (satellite cells)
What is a bundle of nerve fibres (ie. axons) called?
Fascicle
What is endoneurium, perineurium and epineurium?
Endoneurium: covers indicidual nerve axons
Perineurium: covers a fascicle
Epineurium: covers the whole nerve (made up of lots of fascicles)
Where are the ganglia of parasympathetic fibres (and thus where do they synapse)?
Near or in target tissues
Where are the ganglia of sympathetic fibres (and thus where do they synapse)?
Sympathetic chain
What are the pre ganglionic and post ganglionic neurotransmitters for sympathetic and parasympathetic fibres?
Both preganglionic and parasympathetic post ganglionic = ACh
Post ganglionic sympathetic = NA
What are the types of sensory receptors as defined by location?
Exteroceptors, Interoceptors and Proprioceptors
What are the types of sensory receptors as defined by stimulus detected?
Mechanoreceptors, Thermoreceptors, Photoreceptors, Chemoreceptors and Nociceptors (pain)
Name 5 types of sensory receptor endings:
1) Muscle spindles
2) Pacinian Corpuscle
3) Free, unencapsulated endings
4) Ruffini organs
5) Meissener’s or Krause’s bulbs
What are myofibrils made up of and what can they be divided into?
Made up of filaments and can be divided into sarcomeres
What is myosin formed by and what is its rough structure?
Made up of many filaments wrapped together each with a head and a tail
What is actin formed from?
Globular actin, troponin complex which moves tropomyosin
What is the mechanism of muscle contraction?
1) Action potential arrives at neuromuscular junction, ACh is released which binds to receptors and opens Na+ channels leading to an action potential in the sarcolemma
2) Action potential travels along T tubules
3) Ca 2+ is released from SR
4) Ca2+ binds to TnC region of troponin and cause a comformational change which exposes myosin binding sites on actin
5) Mysosin head with ADP+Pi bound attaches, Pi is released initiating power stoke
6) ADP then released after power stroke
7) New ATP binds causing myosin head to be detached, As the ATP splits into ADP and Pi the myosin head is energised
What 3 things do muscles contract in the presence of?
ATP, Ca2+ and Mg2+
2 main types of contractions and there sub types?
Isometric (no change in length): have concentric (muscle gets shorter) and eccentric (muscle gets longer)
Isotonic: no change to muscle length
3 types of muscle fibres and there characteristics?
1) Slow twitch (Type 1) (red, lots of myoglobin, lots of mitochondria, contracts slowly producing low amounts of power, for aerobic activity)
2) Fast twitch A (Type 2a) (red, myoglobin, mitochondria, contract relatively quickly producing moderate amount of power, for long term anaerobic)
3) Fast twitch B (Type 2b) (White, low myoglobin, low mitochondria, contract quickly producing high amounts of power, for anaerobic)
What are the 3 different types of muscle tissue?
1) Skeletal
2) Cardiac
3) Smooth
What is sarcolemma and sarcoplasm?
Sarcolemma contain many myofibrils surrounded by sarcoplasm
What are endomysium, perimysium and epimysium?
Endmysium surrounds sarcolemma, perimysium surrounds fasciculus (made up of sarcolemma) and epimysium surrounds muscle belly (made up of many fasciculus)
What is an electromyography test?
Test to measure the effect of electrical activity on a muscle, test ap and see how muscle twitches, 2 types:
1) INVASIVE - needle in muscle
2) LESS INVASIVE - electopads on the surface corresponding to the muscle
What are the 2 types of synapses?
1) Chemical synapses (neurotransmitter released)
2) Electrical synapses (gap junctions, cytosolic continuity, movement is unidirectional in vertebrates)
What is the refractory period and what does it ensure?
Absolute refractory period, no action potential can be propagated during this interval
Relative refractory period, only a large stimulus can generate an action potential (as the cell is hyperpolarised so takes the influx of more Na+ to reach the threshold potential)
It ensures that conductance of nerve impulses is uni directional
What type of conductance occurs in myelinated axons?
Saltatary conduction
What is the resting potential of normal neurone?
-65mV
What is the threshold potential of a normal neurone?
-40mV
What is the ‘all or nothing principal’?
Unless the cell reaches the threshold potential no impulse will be fired
How does increasing strength of stimulus affect the action potential?
Doesn’t affect the magnitude of the action potential but increases the frequency of action potentials being fired
What 4 things maintain the resting potential of a neurone?
1) Negatively charged intracellular proteins
2) Sodium/potassium ATPase
3) Electrical and chemical K+ gradients
4) Electrical and chemical Na+ gradients
How does the action of Sodium/Potassium ATPase help to maintain resting potential?
It pumps out 3 sodium for 2 potassium in
How does the electrochemical gradient of potassium help to maintain the resting membrane potential? And what is the potassium resting potential?
Potassium wants to move out of the cell along the chemical gradient but into the cell along the electrical gradient, if the resting potential was simply dependent on these 2 gradients when they were in equilibrium the potassium resting potential would be -75mV.
How does the electrochemical gradient of sodium affect the resting membrane potential?
Sodium wants to move into the cell both along its electrical and chemical gradient, therefore the presence of sodium raises the resting membrane potential by 10mV to -65mV. As the membrane is much more permeable to potassium than sodium (more potassium transporters, sodium only has this small affect).
What channels are open during phase 1 of an action potential?
Sodium channels are open, sodium flows into the cell and the membrane potential rises towards threshold potential
What channels are open during phase 2 (Depolarisation) of an action potential?
As membrane potential has reached threshold potential, voltage gated sodium channels are open so sodium flows into cell (positive feedback) and the membrane depolarises
What channels are open during phase 3 (Repolarisation) of an action potential?
Voltage gated sodium channels close and potassium channels open, potassium flows out of cell repolarising membrane
What channels are open during phase 4 (Hyperpolarisation) of an action potential?
Sodium channels still closed and potassium channels still open so membrane becomes hyper polarised