The heart (p2) Flashcards
What are some key differences in the physiological properties of cardiac muscle and skeletal muscle?
Skeletal muscle:
- long
- multinucleate
- cylindrical
- no gap junctions
- SR elaborate (has terminal cisterns)
- abundant amt of T-tubules
- motor units stimulated individually
- source of calcium is only SR
- no pacemaker cells
- tetanus is possible
- aerobic and anaerobic
Cardiac muscle:
- short
- one or two nuclei
- branched
- gap junctions present
- functional syncytium (bc of gap junctions)
- fewer and wider T-tubules
- less elaborate SR (no terminal cisterns)
- pacemaker cells present -> heart can beat on its own
- tetanus is not possible
- aerobic only
Both striated, and calcium binds to troponin
What are the 2 types of cell junctions contained in intercalated discs?
1) Gap junctions - electric coupling to create a functional syncytium
So that the atria and ventricles can contract as a functional syncytium
2) Desmosomes - strong cell to cell adhesion during contraction
Strengthens the walls of the heart
What is heart contraction stimulated by? How does this relate to muscle twitches?
Stimulated by action potentials
AP = signal
Muscle twitch = response
What are pacemaker cells?
Specialized cardiac cells that are capable of spontaneous depolarization
What occurs as a result of an influx of Ca2+ in the heart? Where does the calcium come from?
Calcium from ECF triggers further calcium release from SR
From slow channels - a ‘jump start’ of calcium is needed to support and start contraction
Why is it important that the cardiac absolute refractory period is longer compared to that of skeletal?
Important that cardiac is a longer duration so that the possibility of having tetanic muscle contractions is not allowed (tetanus possible in skeletal but not cardiac muscle)
This forces the cardiac muscle to be refractory and to completely refract to only be able to be stimulated again until they have had a chance to relax
- until ventricles have had a chance to fill again before you stimulate them to contract and push blood out into the pulmonary and systemic circulations
Describe the action potential of contractile cardiac muscle cells, what phases do they undergo?
1) Depolarization
- due to Na influx through fast channels
- reverses the membrane potential
2) Plateau phase
- due to Ca influx through slow channels
- keeps cell depolarized bc of few K channels opened
3) Repolarization
- due to Ca channels inactivating and K channels opening
- K effflux, bringing membrane potential back to resting voltage
How long (approx) is the absolute refractory period? What does this duration allow for?
Almost equals the duration of a muscle twitch
Allows the heart to fill again before further contraction
What is heart rate? What is this determined by?
Heart rate = electrical activity in the heart because of spontaneous depolarization in the SA node
Heart rate determined by sinus rhythm
What are pacemaker potentials?
Authorhythmic cells have unstable RMPs due to funny Na channels that open at negative membrane potentials (usually Na channels only open when threshold is reached)
K channels are closing as well but slowly
This allows a drift towards threshold
What do pacemaker potentials lead to?
Action potentials
What are APs due to in autorhythmic cells?
Voltage gated calcium channels
Influx of calcium is responsible for the spike of depolarization, not the influx of Na (skeletal)
This means they dont ever have a steady RMP unlike skeletal muscle
Which autorhythmic cell is the pacemaker cell? Why?
The sinoatrial node (SA)
- depolarizes the fastest, the farther you get from it, the more the autorhythmic cell will depolarize slower
- overrides all other authorhythmic nodal tissue
- sets the pace for heart rate
Describe the electrical activity of autorhythmic cardiac muscle cells, whwat are the different phases?
1) Pacemaker potential
- slow depolarization
- due to both Na channel opening and K channel closing
2) Depolarization
- AP begins once threshold is reached
- due to Ca influx
3) Repolarization
- due to Ca channels inactivate and K channels opening
- allows K efflux bringing the membrane potential back to most negative voltage
In which direction do each of the following ions travel (generally); sodium, potassium, calcium.
Na = IN
K = OUT
Ca = IN