Unit 4: Muscle Flashcards
What are the types of muscle tissue?
Skeletal
Cardiac
Smooth
What is the function of skeletal muscle?
moves the skeleton by pulling on tendons attached to bones
What is the function of cardiac muscle?
pumps blood through heart chambers and blood vessels
What is the function of smooth muscle?
regulates movement of “contents” through hollow organs and blood vessels
What are the key properties of muscles?
Excitability
Contractility
Extensibility
Elasticity
What is the excitability property of muscle?
Ability to respond to stimuli such as chemical, electrical or mechanical
What is the contractility property of muscle?
Ability to develop tension in response to stimulus.
Enables movement of the structures to which muscles are attached.
Contractility due to interaction of myofilaments (thick and thin filaments composed of myosin and actin)
What is the extensibility property of muscle?
Ability to stretch
What is the elasticity property of muscle?
Ability to return to normal resting length
What does a skeletal muscle consist of?
Contractile tissue composed of muscle cells (aka muscle fibers or myocytes)
Series of collagen-based connective tissue coverings (the “mysiums”)
What do the Series of collagen-based connective tissue coverings (the “mysiums”) of skeletal muscle do?
Binds muscle fibers together
Help links skeletal muscle to bone (usually), skin, or fascia
Help transduces force to attached structure(s)
Conveys blood vessels and nerves
What is the control of contraction & relaxation in skeletal muscle? How is it innervated?
Voluntary
Innervation by motor neurons provide contraction signa
How is skeletal muscle developed?
During embryological development, multiple mesodermal stem cells (myoblasts) fuse to form a single skeletal muscle cell
Each skeletal muscle cell (aka muscle fiber or myocyte) is a syncytium (multinucleated cell)
Can muscle fibers divide?
Once fusion occurs, muscle fibers cannot divide
How do muscle cells enlarge?
Muscles enlarge by cell hypertrophy, not hyperplasia
How does regeneration occur in skeletal muscle?
Some myoblasts (satellite cells) remain in muscle
Regenerative capacity is robust, but can be overwhelmed
What happens with myoblasts (satellite cells) that remain in skeletal muscle?
Satellite cells = stem/progenitor cell-like cells
Can divide and fuse to generate new muscle fibers
Activated when needed for healing/repair
What happens when the regenerative capacity of skeletal muscle is overwhelmed?
After severe muscle trauma or due to disease (e.g. muscular dystrophy)
Fibrosis (replacement of muscle with fibrous tissue) occurs when repair process fails and/or is overwhelmed
What is the shape of skeletal muscle?
Long cylindrical cells (look polygonal in cross section); length varies by location (few mm to >500 mm).
What do the nuclei look like in skeletal muscle?
Multinucleated, with nuclei pushed to periphery, just beneath plasma membrane (sarcolemma)
What does the cytoplasm look like in skeletal muscle?
Cytoplasm (sarcoplasm) filled with myofibrils, bundles of longitudinal arrays of myofilaments
How do the thick and think filaments appear in skeletal muscle?
Overlapping arrangement of thick and thin filaments in myofibrils gives striated appearance
What are striations?
alternating pattern of light and dark bands visible by light microscopy
What are found between myofibrils in skeletal muscle?
Mitochondria and glycogen deposits found between myofibrils
• Generate ATP for muscle contraction
What is the appearance of skeletal muscle fibers in longitudinal sections?
Portions of elongated, cylindrical cells
Portions of multiple fibers seen in parallel
Slivers of endomysium in “spaces” between fibers
Striations perpendicular to long axis of fiber are visible Slender, elongated nuclei at periphery of each fiber
What is the appearance of skeletal muscle fibers in cross sections?
Fibers often look polygonal rather than cylindrical
Myocyte nuclei, when visible, are at periphery
Each muscle fiber surrounded by endomysium
May see small vessels, fibroblast nuclei in endomysium
What are the layers of connective tissue that surround skeletal muscle?
Endomysium
Perimysium
Epimysium
What is endomysium?
delicate layer of reticular fibers that immediately surrounds individual muscle fibers. It carries small diameter blood vessels and fine neuronal branches
What is perimysium?
thicker CT layer that surrounds a group of fibers to for a bundle or fascicle. Fascicles are functional units of muscle fibers. Larger blood vessels and nerves travel here
What is epimysium?
sheath of dense CT that surrounds a collection of fascicles that constitutes the muscle (deep investing fascia). Major vascular and nerve supply of the muscle penetrates the epimysium. Continuous with tendon attaching to bone