Muscle

~640 pieces of muscles

Working as antagonistic
pairs through a joint of the
skeletal system
~320 pairs

 How many types of muscle?

Based on morphological and
functional differences.
Three:
Skeletal muscle

Cardiac muscle
Smooth

1. Skeletal Muscle
composed of bundles of very long cylindrical
multinucleated cells that have cross
striations.
Their contraction is quick, forceful and usually
under voluntary control.

2.

Cardiac Muscle
composed of elongated or branched
individual cells that run parallel to each other.
At sites of end to end contact are the
intercalated disks.
Also have cross striations.
Contraction is involuntary, vigorous and
rhythmic.

3. Smooth Muscle
consists of collections of fusiform cells,
no cross striations.
Contraction is slow and involuntary.

 How many types of skeletal

muscle?Based on color or
oxidative capacity.
Three; white (anaerobic), pink or
red (aerobic).

Why farmers prefer to plough the land

with a cow instead of a pig?

Beef
Pork

Marathon runner versus sprinter?

There are different types of muscle with different

ATPase activity and differing speeds of contraction :
1. Fast Muscle

2. Fast Muscle

3. Slow Muscle

low oxidation

high oxidation

high oxidation

a) very low
mitochondria

Many mitochondria

Many
mitochondria

b) white or pink, few

oxidative enzymes no
myoglobin

darker pink oxidative

enzymes low myoglobin

dark red oxidative

enzymes high
myoglobin

c) uses only glucose

uses glucose, fat

and protein

uses glucose, fat

and protein

d) easily fatigued
lactic acid formed

easily fatigued
lactic acid formed

long lasting little

lactic acid

e) Fast ATPase

Intermediate
ATPase

Slow ATPase

f) Tetanus
tensions
Tension

Tension

Tension

time

time

time

RED

White

Skeletal muscle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG1JHW_q2VA

 What constitute the thin filaments?

What is the function of the G-actin
and F-actin?

Z-line

Binding site for

myosin head

Change position after binging with Ca++

 What constitute the thick filaments?

What is the function of the myosin
head?

M-line

ATPase
HMM
S1

LMM

HMM
S2

 How do thick and thin filaments

organized into functional units of
skeletal muscle?
What is a sarcomere?

Transmission of
action potential

Storage of Ca++

Sliding of filaments

Sarcomeres
Thin and thick filaments overlap in two
regions of each sarcomere
Each thick filament is surrounded by six thin
filaments
Three-dimensional organization of thin and
thick filaments is maintained by other proteins
Nebulin
Along length of thin filament
Titin
Keeps thick filament centered in sarcomere
Attaches thick filament to Z-disk

Sarcomeres

Figure 5.17

Three-Dimensional Structure of
Sarcomere

6 thin: 1 thick

Figure 5.18

 What are the advantages of having

many units of short sarcomeres
instead of one long units which
covers the whole length of the
muscle?

At Z line, thin filaments do not run

straight through, but terminate.

Thin
filament

Cocked
Thick
filament

Thin
filament

Rotated

Cocked
Thick
filament

Thin
filament

Rotated

Cocked
Thick
filament

Why would the muscle exhibit constant

volume contraction?

Relaxed
Z-line

contracted

 Since skeletal muscle is voluntary,

how is skeletal muscle contraction
controlled?

Relaxed;
myosin
binding site
covered.
Sliding,
myosin
binding site
uncovered.

 What is the role of calcium in muscle

contraction?
How does it work together with troponin
and affect tropomyocin?

Very high in Ca++

conc. at resting
Very low in Ca++
conc. at resting
Upon
depolarization, Ca++
channels open,
releasing Ca++ into
myofibriles

All-or-none
signal

(Dihydropyridine
receptor )

Graded
signal

 How does sliding occur between thick

and thin filaments?

Cocked position
ready for binding

rotated position,
sliding occurs

Video on control of muscle contraction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRxsOMenNQM

During shortening of the sarcomere,

there are no changes in the lengths
of the thick and thin filaments.

Shortened

Constant
length

Constant

Constant
length

 What are the roles of ATP in muscle

contraction?
Link with this weeks practical.

Structure of ATP

The bonds between the phosphate groups of ATP

are unstable and can be broken by hydrolysis.

If no ATP is available
to bind to the myosin
head, the actiomyosin
complex will not
dissociationRigor
Mortis after death

So, what are the roles of ATP in the

contraction and relaxation of skeletal
muscle contraction?

Myosin head conformational change

Dissociation of actomyosin complex
Active transport of Ca++
Maintenance of Na+ and K+ gradients

Production of heat (shivering)

What is the relationship between the

degree of overlap between thick and thin
filaments and the tension build up?

Summary: Muscle structure and function

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ren_IQPOhJc

 What is a muscle twitch, and

what is tetany (muscle cramp)?
Reading assignment on muscle cramp:
http://www.medicinenet.com/muscle_cramps/article.htm

The mechanical response of a muscle fiber to a

single action potential is known as a twitch.

A maintained contraction in response to repetitive

stimulation is known as a tetanus.

Muscle cramp (tetany)

Mineral imbalance (Na+, K+, Ca++, Mg++,)
Inadequate blood supply (temp, dehydration,
Nerve compression
(age, dehydration, pregnancy, medical conditions.)

Tetanus disease

Clostridium tetani

Connection between motor neuron and

skeletal muscle:
What is a motor unit?
Is it good to have large motor units
or small motor units?
Neuromuscular junction and motor unit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzXVe4RS8-A (8:50min).

The details of muscle contraction:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0mDFP7qn1Y&feature=related

Size of motor unitsdelicate or powerful

movement?

The motor neurons to a given muscle fire in an

asynchronous pattern.
Thus some motor units will be contracting while
others are relaxing.
This asynchrony has the advantages of:
1. Preventing fatigue of the muscle.
Some units are resting at all times.

2. Maintaining a nearly constant tension in the

muscle. If all were firing in synchrony,
movement would be jerky series of
contractions and relaxations. This type of
movements is associated with certain
diseases such as Parkinsons disease and
also the normal shivering responses to cold.
Both inhibition of the subcortical centers in
the dominated by local feed back loops from
stretch receptors which tend to become
synchronous and thus oscillatory.

What happens to your muscles as you

aged?

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.fall-preventioninstitute.org/images/wastedleg.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.fall-preventioninstitute.org/muscleloss.html&usg=__YLSBli2KA1mda24Ysp9Y8uQyzMc=&h=332&w=295&
sz=14&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=3PMOg_PwX_Z_dM:&tbnh=119&tbnw=106&prev=/images%3F
q%3Daging%2Bmuscle%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den

 What happens to your muscles

as you aged?

Weaker and Weaker!

Do exercise!!!

EXERCISE AND MUSCLES

Moderate exercise increases the diameter of muscle
cells, thus enlarging and strengthening the gross
muscle being exercised.
If the exercise involves movement, as in weight
lifting. It is said to be isotonic, for though a muscle
does shorten during such exercise, its tension does
not greatly increase. If one exercise, by pushing
against an immovable object, or by opposing
antagonistic muscle to each other, the resulting
contraction does not actually shorten the muscle.
This is called isometric exercise.

 What is isometric contraction?

What is isotonic contraction?

Note: isotonic exercise involves

both isometric and isotonic
contraction in a muscle.

Antagonistic pair of muscles

Red= contract
Blue=relax

Isotonic vs isometric contraction:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbXML3m2hSE
Isotonic= constant tension
Isotonic
contraction

Isometric= constant length

Isometric
contraction

 Although muscle fibers enlarge with body growth,

they do not normally increase in number, so that
as they die they cannot be replaced (under
normal circumstances). However, vigorous and
continual exercise may lead to hypertrophy (i.e.
increase in myofibril number).
Thus, without exercise, the number of muscle
cells in all muscles drastically decreases in old
age.
Part of this decrease is no doubt due to minor
injuries that occur in the course of a life time.

Muscle stem cells can help to repair major

muscle injuries (would you consider doing stem cell
research?)

What is muscle soreness?

How to deal with it?

Skeletal muscles produce forces which

need to work with the skeletal systems
(bones and joints)!
What kind of lever system
does the arm represent?
What is its mechanical
advantage? Why?

Types of levers
Class 1

Class 2

Class 3

 Third type lever

Advantage
:You can
touch your
nose!!!

Disadvantage:
Low mechanical
advantage

 What kind of lever system

does other parts of the body
have?

Any joint exhibit high

mechanical advantage (MA)?

Mechanical advantage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTa2EFd3JF0

High MA
Low
flexibility

Low MA
High flexibility

Why can deer run faster than human? How to

improve both mechanical advantage and flexibility?

 Why would a person fall?

Where is the center of mass

in your body?
Is it in a constant position?

 How high can you jump?

What is the relationship

between the center of mass
and high jump?
How to improve the method of
high jump?

= center of mass

Center of mass is
outside the body

An athlete use physics to break the world record in

high jump! (Always think about application!!)

End