Properties of a Skeletal Muscle

Dana Little

Section: 8

TA: Davis Meyers

Introduction

The muscular system is important for normal body functioning. There three

types of muscles, cardiac muscle are found in the heart to pump blood throughout

the body. Smooth muscles control the contractions of organs. Skeletal muscles

have two functions, to generate and shorten force, and contract to the response of

electrical and chemical signals. Skeletal muscles consist of muscle fibers made of

myofibrils for contracting. Myofibrils are made of actin filaments and thick myosin

filaments which when they over lap makes the muscle contract. The length of the

fiber that overlaps is related to how much tension is produced.

Signals from the brain sends signals to the spinal cord, where moto neurons

stimulate the muscle fibers. The motor unit consist of motor neurons and the

muscle fibers. The human body has many muscle units large and small which

depends the movement. Large muscle fibers produce large forces, small motor

units have fewer muscles for finer movements. Smaller motors are stimulated first

and then larger ones to conserve energy. However artificial stimulation can

activate large units first instead of small units.

To contract a muscle the signal must be big enough to cause an action

potential which travels to the nerve cell and to the muscle fibers. When a

stimulated the never cells release calcium ion to trigger acetylcholine to release.

Acetylcholine binds to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors on the muscle fibers.

Sodium ion channels open and depolarize the nerve cell. Potassium ion channel

then also open and repolarizes the cell, which creates and second action potential.

Calcium is released from the sarcoplasmic reticulum, troponin releases calcium,

and the interaction of actin and myosin cross bridges. The muscle is now relaxed

and is ready for another contraction. A twitch is a small muscle contraction cause

from firing a direction stimulation or an action potential. By increasing the voltage

and frequency of stimulation allows for more motor units for recruitment resulting

in a higher tension and temporal summation. In summation the first stimulation of

the muscle fiber causes a second stimulation before it can relax. If the voltage is

high enough the fibers will be stimulated rapidly so there is no time for relaxation

which we can also tetanus.

The purpose of this lab is to understand skeletal muscle contraction and how

force is affected manipulating different factors. The stimulator sends pulses though

the sciatic nerve and the gastrocnemius muscle on the frog. By changing the

intensity and frequency of the stimulus and recording the forces produced and

observe the differences in the twitches. We also observe the effects of tunocurare

which is an inhibitor of acetylcholine. The last activity we used direct stimulation

of the gastrocnemius frog muscle. At the end we saw that increasing the stimulus

resulted in an increase in the force until it has reached its maximum. When we

increased the frequency is caused an increase in a force until the muscle has
reached tetanus. When we injected the tubocurarine it inhibited muscle contraction,

by using electrodes we can directly stimulate the muscle with the capabilities of by

passing the nervous system.

Methods:

To begin we obtained out Northern Leopard frog (Lithobates pipiens). We

then sperate the skin and carefully isolating the gastrocnemius from the tendon by Commented [DCL1]:

cutting away the bone at the heel. We then tie a 9-inch string to the gastrocnemius.

To keep the frog moist, we periodically applied Ringers saline solution to the frog.

Next, we exposed the sciatic nerve between the quadriceps and hamstring muscles.

The sciatic nerve was a thin white line extending from the knee to the hips. By

using a glass probe, we were able to free the nerve and place a 4 inch sting under

it. We then placed a parafilm to separate the nerve from the muscle to prevent the

electrode from stimulating the muscles at the wrong place. The artificial stimulator

sends electrical pules to the frog and the BioPac program places the response on to

a graph. First, we much calibrate the transducer by hanging a 20g weight with an S

hook. We then clamp the frog’s gastrocnemius junction to hold the leg in place.

The 9 inch string is now hung to the transducer at a 90 degree from the lower leg.

Double checking all our leads and dials are at the correct settings and hung the

muscle at a tension between 20-30 grams.

 In the first experiment we tested for stimulus intensity on the frog to find its

maximum voltage threshold. The stimulator settings set to the Table found on page

13, the stimulator slowly increases until a twitch occurs which a peak on the

BioPac. The threshold is the lowest voltage needed to make a twitch. Switching it

to single and slowly increase the voltage until peaks no longer increases meaning

we have reached out maximum. Voltage maximum is the lowest voltage needed to

create a maximum tension or force.

We found our voltage threshold and maximum. Before starting our second

experiment, we must check our tension again and adjust it back to between 20-30

grams. In this experiment we observed that by increasing stimulation frequency

until it reaches tetanus or summation. We start the voltage at maximum, the

frequency at 0.5 pps and switch it to repeat for 15 seconds. We then tested

frequency at 1.0, 2.0, 4.0,8.0, 15, and 25pps. We waited 30 seconds in-between test

to allow the muscle to rest.

In the third experiment we observed how inhiation will lower the number of

the acetylcholine receptors that are able to bind to acetylcholine and produce a

twitch. We often had to reassure that our leg tension 20-30 grams. Before injecting

tubocurare by our TA, we switch the stimulator to repeat and recorded for 1 minute

to observe the stimulation without the inhibitor. Next our TA injected .25ml of

tubocurare in the gastrocnemius and recorded for 5 minutes.

 The final experiment we used direct stimulation of the muscles instead of

indirectly stimulating. Two metal electrodes are inserted about 5mm apart in the

leg and connected to the stimulator. The begin the situation by increasing the

voltage until we see a response which our voltage threshold for the direct

stimulation will be. We recorded for 30 seconds and increased the voltage until the

peaks no longer increased which will be our voltage max for direct stimulation.

Results

In this experiment we measured the muscle tension produced by the

gastrocnemius of the frog by increasing the voltage. Tension is measured as grams

of force produced by voltage sent from the electrical pulse.

Setting

V Threshold 0.22

V Max 0.375

Change in V 0.02