Part 1: Muscle Physiology Flashcards
To perform work and generate power, all muscles require:
ATP and calcium
Load of skeletal muscle, load of smooth muscle, load of cardiac muscle:
- Skeletal: gravity
- Smooth: blood pressure, food/digestion
- Cardiac: blood pressure
Sources of calcium and ATP for skeletal muscle:
- Ca2+: intracellular
- ATP: stored, phosphagen, glycolytic, oxidative phosphoryation, fatty acids
Sources of calcium and ATP for smooth muscle:
- Ca2+: extra- and intracellular
- ATP: oxidative phosphorylation
Sources of calcium and ATP for cardiac muscle:
- Ca2+: extra- and intracellular
- ATP: oxidative phosphorylation, fatty acids
Functions of skeletal muscle:
- Ambulation, posture
- Displacing mass
- Glucoregulation
Function of cardiac muscle (myocardium):
Moving blood volume
Function of smooth muscle:
- Changing lumenal diameter
- Digestion
- Blood pressure
Hierarchy of muscle structure:
- Whole muscle
- Fascicles
- Muscle fibers/cells (covered with satellite cells)
- Myofibrils
- Sarcomeres
- Myofilaments
- Actin
- Myosin
The three types of troponin and their roles:
- Troponin I (anchor to actin)
- Troponin C (calcium binding)
- Troponin T (anchors to tropomyosin)
What protein is interwoven into the actin filament and binds myosin?
tropomyosin
Structure of muscle myofilaments:
Process of voluntary muscle contraction:
- Brain initiates movement.
- Brain signal travels down spinal cord descending tracts.
- Signal leaves spinal cord through ventral root.
- Signal travels on alpha and gamma motor neurons to muscle fibers.
A motor unit consists of:
Motor neuron + fiber(s) it innervates
What motor neurons are involved in voluntary skeletal muscle contraction?
alpha and gamma motor neurons
Steps in neuromuscular transmission to muscle contraction:
- Action potential reaches motor neuron terminus. Voltage-gated calcium channels open, calcium influx, acetylcholine synaptic vesicles released.
- Acetylcholine binds to cholinergic-nicotinic (CN) receptors on the post-synaptic membrane of the muscle cell. Small sodium influx generates end plate potential.
- Endplate potential opens voltage-gated sodium channels, sodium rushes in and causes action potential firing in the muscle cell.
- Action potential travels down T-tubules of muscle cells and activates dihydropyridine receptors (DHPRs).
- DHPRs activate ryanodine receptors (RYRs), which are calcium channels. Calcium influx into the sarcoplasm of the T-tubule from the sarcoplasmic reticulum.
- Elevated sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium levels. Calcium binds to troponin C, causing conformational change in troponin C. Tropomyosin on actin revealed.
- Myosin head binds to tropomyosin on the actin.
- Myosin head changes conformation, power stroke occurs, which releases ADP + Pi from the myosin head.
- ATP binds to myosin head, myosin dissociates from tropomyosin/actin.
- ATP is hydrolyzed to ADP + Pi.
- Myosin head binds to tropomyosin. Repeat power strokes continue so long as increased calcium levels in the sarcoplasmic reticulum keep tropomyosin exposed.
Alpha and gamma motor neurons use what neurotransmitter/receptor to generate an end plate potential in muscle cells?
- Neurotransmitter: acetylcholine
- Receptor: cholinergic-nicotinic (CN)
Cholinergic-nicotinic (CN) receptors are:
- ligand-gated sodium channels activated by acetylcholine.
- activation generates an end plate potential.
What occurs when acetylcholine from a motor neuron crosses the synaptic cleft and binds to cholinergic-nicotinic (CN) receptors on the membrane of a muscle cell?
- Small sodium influx generates end plate potential.
- Endplate potential opens voltage-gated sodium channels, sodium rushes in and causes action potential firing in the muscle cell.