MUSCULAR SYSTEM

The muscle system consists of

muscle tissue.

This is the most abundant tissue in the human body.Human body has some 639 separate muscles, which make up about half of the body weight.Movements in humans are brought about by the muscle tissue. This tissue consists of long, narrow,highly specialized cells called

muscle fibres.

The latter have two distinguishing properties:

contractabilility

and

electrical excitability.

The electrical excitability is due to the energy stored inan electrical potential difference across the plasma membrane. A chemical transmitter released at aneuromuscular junction (synapse between a motor neuron and a muscle fibre) excites the musclefibre’s membrane which depolarizes in response. The excitation in the membrane initiatescontraction in the muscle fibre.The study of muscles is called

myology

(G.

mus

= muscle,

logos

= study).

TYPES OF MUSCLES

The muscle tissues of humans are of 3 types: striated, smooth and cardiac.

1. Striated Muscle:

It causes limb movements and locomotion in the vertebrates. It is attached toand functions in association with the skeleton. Hence, it is also known as

skeletal muscle.

The twoends of a skeletal muscle are typically attached to two different bones and the contraction of themuscle draws one bone toward the other like a lever. This moves the part of the limb that containsthe bone that is pulled in the process. The joint between the two bones acts as the fulcrum of thelever.A striated muscle fibre is a cylindrical, multinucleated cell. It is bounded by

sarcolemma

(plasmamembrane), and contains in its

sarcoplasm

(cytoplasm) well developed endoplasmic reticulum thatis specialized for calcium storage and is called

sarcoplasmic reticulum.

A striated muscle fibreshows alternating dark and light crossbands, the

striations

stripes,

under the microscope, henceits name. Dark band is called

A band.

It has at its middle a light zone termed

H zone.

A thin

M line

interconnects the primary myofilaments in the

H zone.

Light band is known as

I band.

It is crossedthrough its centre by a dark membrane called

Z line.

The part of the muscle fibre between twosuccessive Z lines functions as a contractile unit termed

sarcomere.

The latter consists of the A bandand half of each adjacent I band. Invaginations, called

T-tubules,

of sarcolemma extend into themuscle fibre adjacent to Z line. Each sarcomere is a bundle of fine longitudinal myofilaments of twotypes:

(i)

Primary Myofilaments:

These are thicker, confined to A band only, formed of the protein

myosin,

free at both the end, and bear globular

heads

sticking off to the side from a long

tail.(ii) Secondary Myofilaments:

These are thinner; occur in I bands but extend for some distance intothe A band between the primary myofilaments; composed of the protein

actin

and with it tworegulatory proteins:

tropomyosin

and

troponin.

They have a smooth surface and are attached to Zlines at one end and are free at the other. They are more numerous than the primary myofilaments,6 of them surround each primary myofilament. A thin myofilmant consists of two strands of actinand one strand of tropomyosin coiled around one another. Troponin is a complex of 3 globularpeptides.

Partial overlapping of the primary myofilaments by the secondary myofilaments imparts dark appearance to the A bands.The striated muscle contracts rapidly, but cannot remain contracted for a long time, since it soon getsfatigued. It is innervated by cranial and spinal nerves. Its contraction is under the control of theanimal. It is, therefore, also called the

voluntary muscle.

2. Smooth Muscle:

It is not associated with bones. It occurs in the internal organs and is responsiblefor their movements. It is, therefore, also termed

visceral muscle.

A smooth muscle fibre is spindle-shaped, uninucleate cell without striations. A smooth muscle contracts slowly but can remaincontracted for a long time without getting fatigued. It is innervated mainly by autonomic nervoussystem. Its contraction is not the animal’s control. It is, therefore, also known as the

involuntarymuscle.

3. Cardiac Muscle:

It occurs in the heart wall and brings about heart beat. It too is not associatedwith bones. A cardiac muscle cell is cylindrical, uninucleate, striated and branched. The ends of thecells have intercalated discs for cell to cell relay of signals during heart beat.

Need of Skeleton for Muscle Action

The force of muscle contraction cannot do useful work without something to pull or push against,e.g., bones of our body, blood in the heart, food in the intestine. Skeleton provides surface forattachment of muscles, and a system of levers and pivots for muscles to pull against, enabling themto work in moving body parts or in locomotion. Even the visceral muscles, which are not attached toskeleton, have firm attachment to other structures which play a sort of ‘skeletal’ role.

Morphology of Body Muscles:Structure:

A body muscle is a large bundle of numerous parallel striated muscle fibres enclosed bya thick, smooth common muscle sheath, called

epimysium.

Within the epimysium, the muscle fibresoccur in smaller bundles called

muscle fasciculi,

each enclosed by its own sheath, the

perimysium.

Within the perimysium, each individual muscle fibre is encased by a thin sheath, the

endomysium.

All the sheaths are continuous and are formed of connective tissue, mainly yellow elastic tissue.Between the muscle fibres are blood vessels and nerves. The blood vessels supply nutrients andoxygen to power contraction and remove metabolic wastes. Nerves trigger and control musclecontraction.The muscle fibres do not extend to the whole length of a muscle, normally there are more fibres inthe middle region, which is naturally thicker than the ends that are tapered. The middle thick regionof a muscle having maximum muscle fibres is called the

belly.