Skeletal Muscle Flashcards
Skeletal Muscles
- primarily voluntary by somatic motor neurons
- multinucleated
- striations
- usually attached to bones by tendons
Origin vs. Insertion
Origin:
- closest to the trunk or to more stationary bone
Insertion:
- more distal or more mobile attachment
Flexor vs. Extensor
- antagonistic muscle groups Flexor: - brings bones together Extensor: - moves bones away
Breakdown of Skeletal Muscle
Largest to smallest
- Muscle
- Connective tissue, blood vessels, *Fascicles
- muscle fibres
- myofibrils
- sarcomere
- myosin (thick) and actin (thin)
Striations
correspond to ordered arrays of thick and thin filaments within the myofibrils
F-Actin
- back bone of thin filaments
- double stranded alpha helical polymer of G-actin molecules
- contains binding site for thick filaments (myosin)
Tropomyosin
- two identical helices that coil around each other and still in the two grooves formed by actin strands
- regulates the binding of myosin to actin
Troponin Complex
- situated ~every 7 actin molecules
Heterotrimer consisting of:
1. troponin T (TnT): binds to a single molecule of tropomyosin
2. troponin C (TnC): Ca2+ binding site
3. troponin I (TnI): under resting conditions is bound to actin inhibiting contraction
Thick Filaments
- consists of bundles of Myosin molecules
- two intertwined heavy chains (two alpha helical rods wrapped around each other)
- each consist of two light chains
- Myosin head has region for binding actin as well as a site for binding and hydrolyzing ATP (ATPase)
Regulatory Light Chain
regulates ATPase activity of myosin
Essential Light Chain
stabilizes myosin head
Titin
- very large protein extending from M line to Z line
- involved in stabilization and the elastic recoil behaviour of muscle
Nebulin
- large protein that wraps around the thin filament
- regulates the length of thin filaments
- contribute to the structural integrity of myofibrils
Sarcomere Structure
- Z disk: zigzag protein; attachment for thin filaments
- I bands: occupied only by thin filaments
- A band: entire length of thick filaments; thin and thick overlap
- H zone: only thick filaments
- M line: attachment for thick filament
Sliding Filament Model
- sarcomere shortens during contraction
- actin and myosin don’t change length, they slide past one another
- H zone and I band both shorten while A band remains constant
Tension
the force generated by a contracting skeletal muscle
Initiation of Skeletal Muscle Contraction
- events at neuromuscular junction
- excitation-contraction coupling
- Ca2+ signal
- contraction-relaxation cycle
- muscle twitch OR sliding filament theory
Neuromuscular Junction
point of synaptic contact between somatic motor neurone and individual muscle fibre
- the synapse of a lower motor neuron to a muscle fibre
- consists of axon terminals, motor end plates on muscle membrane, Schwann cell sheaths
Excitation-Contraction Coupling
an action potential initiated in the skeletal muscle fibre results in an increase in intracellular (sarcoplasmic) Ca2+
Brain Regions Involved in Voluntary Movements
- Primary Motor Cortex
- premotor cortex (motor association)
- basal ganglia
- thalamus
- midbrain
- cerebellum
Corticospinal tract - ventral and interior lateral white matter
Upper motor neuron - brain to spinal cord
Alpha (lower) motor neuron - spinal cord to muscle
Alpha (lower) motor neuron
- from spinal cord to muscle
Motor unit
- a single motor neuron and all the muscle fibres it innervates
- each axon branches and innervates several muscle fibres (cells)
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
- neurodegenerative motor neuron disease
- upper and/or lower motor neurone degenerate leading to muscle atrophy and weakness from disuse
- 10% genetically inherited
- dominant traits
- mutation in gene(s) producing superoxide dismutase (enzymes that catalyze disputation of superoxide into oxygen and hydrogen peroxide)
Three components of Neuromuscular Junction
- presynaptic motor neuron filled with synaptic vesicles
- the synaptic cleft
- the postsynaptic membrane of the skeletal muscle fibre
Motor End Plate
- region of the sarcolemma at the neuromuscular junction
Junctional Folds
on sarcolemma to increases surface area
Acetylcholine
- contained in motor neuron vesicles
Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors
- in the muscle sarcolemma
- member of cys-loop receptor family of ligand gated ion channels
- classified as monovalent cation channel (permeable to Na+ and K+)
- opening requires 2 acetylcholine molecules
Opening one ACh receptor
- the nicotinic cholinergic receptor binds to 2 ACh molecules, opening a nonspecific monovalent cation channel
- allow Na+ and K+ to pass
- net Na+ influx depolarizes muscle fibre
Excitatory End-Plate Potential
- generated by the entry of Na+ through nACh
- spreads to adjacent voltage gated Na+ channels on the sarcolemma and initiates an action potential
- always causes an AP in a muscle fibre because of high amount of ACh
- same as EPSP
When AP’s Stop Firing
- acetylcholine in synaptic cleft must be removed and will either
- diffuse away
- be broken down to acetate and choline by the enzyme acetylcholinesterase
Acetylcholinesterase
an enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine into acetate and choline
Choline Acetyltranferase
an enzyme that makes acetylcholine from:
- choline is transported back into motor neuron
- Acetyl CoA produced from mitochondria
Myasthenia Gravis
- severe weakness of muscle
- disorder of neuromuscular transmission
- can be redistricted to extra ocular muscles or generalized
- AUTOIMMUNE: body produces antibodies that bind to ACh receptors
- impedes activation of AChR and eventually decreases #
- degeneration of post-junctional folds
- treatment: acetylcholinesterase inhibitors or immunosuppressant
Action Potentials in Skeletal Muscle
- propagate from the sarcolemma to the interior muscle fibres along the transverse tubule network
Sarcolemma
- penetrates into the muscle fibre in the form of T-tubules and wrap around each myofibril in specific regions
Sarcoplasmic Reticulum
- specialized Ca2+ storage organelles
- strategically organized with the T-tubules
Excitation-Contraction Coupling
- the process by which electrical excitation of the surface membrane triggers an increase of [Ca2+]I in muscle
T-Tubules
- penetrate the muscle fibres and surround the myofibrils at two point in each sarcomere, at the A and I band junctions
Triad
- formed by the tubules and two cisternae that are associated with it
Cisternae
- specialized end regions of the sarcoplasmic reticulum
DHP
- dihydropyridine L-type Ca2+ channel
- voltage sensitive
RyR
- ryanodine receptor
- Ca2+ release channel on SR
Initiation of Muscle Action Potential
- somatic motor neurone releases ACh at neuromuscular junction
- net entry of Na+ through ACh receptor-channel initiates a muscle action potential
Excitation-Contraction Coupling Process
- Action potential in t-tubule alters conformation of DHP receptor
- DHP receptor open RyR Ca2+ release channels in sarcoplasmic reticulum and Ca2+ enters cytoplasm
Ca2+ induced Ca2+ release
- can enter sarcoplasm through L-type channels
- RyR can be activated by Ca2+
- NOT vital in skeletal muscle
Increase in [Ca2+]i
- triggers contraction
- Ca2+ binds low affinity sites on TnC (conformational change)
- troponin complex and tropomyosin moves to reveal myosin binding site on actin
Cross Bridge Cycle
- once intracellular Ca2+ is elevated tropomyosin shifts allowing myosin to tightly bind actic
1. ATP Binding
2. ATP Hydrolysis
3. The Power Stroke
4. ADP Release
ATP Binding
- ATP binds to the head of myosin heavy chain reducing affinity of myosin for actin
ATP Hydrolysis
- ATP is broken down to ADP and inorganic phosphate (Pi) resulting in the myosin head pivoting around into cocked state
- cocked head is now aligned with and binds to a new actin molecule on thin filament
The Power Stroke
- dissociation of Pi from myosin head strengthens bond between actin and myosin AND triggers power stroke
- a conformational change in which the myosin head returns to its un-cocked state
- pulls actin filaments generating force and motion
ADP Release
- dissociation of ADP from myosin causes to remain bound to actin until ATP initiates the cycle again
Termination of Contraction
- requires removal of Ca2+
- Ca2+ must be removed so myosin binding site on actin can be covered by tropomyosin
Removal of Ca2+
- can be removed to the extracellular space by:
- Na-Ca exchanger
- Ca2+ pump (uses ATP)
- eventually would deplete the cell of any Ca2+, leaving SR empty and because this play a minor role
Ca2+ Reuptake in the SR
- Na-Ca exchanger and Ca2+ pump in the plasma membrane both extrude Ca2+ from the cell
- Ca2+ pump sequesters Ca2+ within the SR
- Ca2+ is bound in the SR by calreticulin and calsequestrin
Mediation of Ca2+
- mediated by sarcoplasmic and endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ -ATPase (SERCA)-type Ca2+ pump
- high Ca2+ in SR inhibits this pump