Muscle Tissue SKELETAL MUSCLE

• A skeletal muscle is attached at either end by

• It is a highly cellular tissue
a dense regular connective tissue called
• Responsible for locomotion and movement of TENDON to a bone or cartilage.
various parts of the body.
• Attachments are referred to as origin and
• Muscle cells are derived from mesoderm insertion.
except those in the iris of the eye that arise
• They are also called voluntary muscle
from ectoderm.
• Functions:
• They are elongated cells often referred to as
muscle fibers. • Produce movement
• Enveloped by basal lamina • Maintain posture
• Cell membrane is known as sarcolemma • Stabilize joints
• Cytoplasm known as sarcoplasm • Generate heat
• Endoplasmic reticulum as sarcoplasmic MUSCLE REGENERATION AND GROWTH
reticulum
Skeletal Muscle
• Mitochondria as sarcosomes.
• Increase in size (hypertrophy)
3 TYPES OF MUSCLE TISSUE:
• Increase in number
1) Skeletal muscle (regeneration/proliferation)
2) Smooth • Satellite cells are proposed source of
regenerative cells
3) Cardiac
Smooth Muscle

• Increase in size (hypertrophy)

MUSCLE TISSUE
• Increase in number
I. Striated Muscle - regularly arranged contractile
(regeneration/proliferation)
units
• Smooth muscle cells are proliferative
A. Skeletal Muscle - long, cylindrical
multinucleated cells with peripherally placed (e.g. uterine myometrium and
nuclei. Contraction is typically quick and vascular smooth muscle)
vigorous and under voluntary control. Used
for locomotion, mastication, and phonation. • Vascular pericytes can also provide
B. Cardiac Muscle - elongated, branched cells source of smooth muscle
with a single centrally placed nucleus and Heart Muscle
intercalated discs at the ends. Contraction is
involuntary, vigorous, and rhythmic. • Increase in size (hypertrophy)

II. Smooth Muscle - possesses contractile machinery, • Formerly thought to be non-proliferative

but it is irregularly arranged (thus, non-striated). Cells
are fusiform with a central nucleus. Contraction is
involuntary, slow, and long lasting.
• Post-infarction tissue remodeling by
fibroblasts (fibrosis/scarring)
• New evidence suggests mitotic
cardiomyocytes and regeneration by
blood or vascular-derived stem cells
 MICROSCOPIC ANATOMY OF SKELETAL MUSCLE

• Sarcolemma—specialized plasma membrane

• Myofibrils—long organelles inside muscle cell

• Myofibrils are aligned to give distinct bands

CONNECTIVE TISSUE WRAPPINGS OF SKELETAL
MUSCLE • I band = light band

• Cells are surrounded and bundled by • Contains only thin filaments

connective tissue
• A band = dark band
• Endomysium—encloses a single
• Contains the entire length of
muscle fiber
the thick filaments
• Perimysium—wraps around a fascicle
• At rest, within the A band
(bundle) of muscle fibers
there is a zone that lacks actin
• Epimysium—covers the entire skeletal filaments called either the H
muscle zone or bare zone

• Fascia—on the outside of the

epimysium

Organization of Skeletal Muscle

• Sarcoplasmic reticulum—specialized smooth

endoplasmic reticulum

• Stores and releases calcium

• Surrounds the myofibril

• Sarcomere—contractile unit of a muscle fiber

 • Myofilaments

• Thick filaments = myosin filaments

• Composed of the protein

myosin

• Has ATPase enzymes

• Myosin filaments have heads

(extensions, or cross bridges)

• Myosin and actin overlap

somewhat

• Thin filaments = actin filaments

• Composed of the protein

actin

• Anchored to the Z disc

• Neuromuscular junction

• Association site of axon terminal of

the motor neuron and muscle

STIMULATION AND CONTRACTION OF

SINGLE SKELETAL MUSCLE CELLS

• Excitability (also called responsiveness or

irritability)—ability to receive and respond to
a stimulus

• Contractility—ability to shorten when an

adequate stimulus is received

• Extensibility—ability of muscle cells to be

stretched
• Elasticity—ability to recoil and resume resting
length after stretching
The Nerve Stimulus and Action Potential
• Skeletal muscles must be stimulated by a
motor neuron (nerve cell) to contract
• Motor unit—one motor neuron and all the
skeletal muscle cells stimulated by that
neuron
• Synaptic cleft
• Gap between nerve and muscle
• Nerve and muscle do not make
contact
• Area between nerve and muscle is
filled with interstitial fluid
• Action potential reaches the axon terminal of
the motor neuron
• Calcium channels open and calcium ions enter
the axon terminal
 THE SLIDING FILAMENT THEORY OF MUSCLE
CONTRACTION
TRANSMISSION OF NERVE IMPULSE TO MUSCLE
• Activation by nerve causes myosin heads
• Calcium ion entry causes some synaptic
(cross bridges) to attach to binding sites on
vesicles to release their contents
the thin filament
(acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter) by
exocytosis • Myosin heads then bind to the next site of the
thin filament and pull them toward the center
• Neurotransmitter—chemical released by
of the sarcomere
nerve upon arrival of nerve impulse in the
axon terminal • This continued action causes a sliding of the
myosin along the actin
• The neurotransmitter for skeletal
muscle is acetylcholine (ACh) • The result is that the muscle is shortened
(contracted)
• Acetylcholine attaches to receptors on the
sarcolemma of the muscle cell

• In response to the binding of ACh to a

receptor, the sarcolemma becomes
+
permeable to sodium (Na )

• Sodium rushes into the cell generating an

action potential and potassium leaves the cell

• Once started, muscle contraction cannot be

stopped
 • Some relaxation occurs between
contractions but nerve stimuli arrive
at an even faster rate than during
summing of contractions

• Unless the muscle contraction is

smooth and sustained, it is said to be
in unfused tetanus

CONTRACTION OF SKELETAL MUSCLE

• Muscle fiber contraction is “all or none”

• Within a skeletal muscle, not all fibers may be

stimulated during the same interval

• Different combinations of muscle fiber

contractions may give differing responses
• Fused (complete) tetanus
• Graded responses—different degrees of
• No evidence of relaxation before the
skeletal muscle shortening
following contractions
• Graded responses can be produced by
• Frequency of stimulations does not
changing:
allow for relaxation between
• The frequency of muscle stimulation contractions

• The number of muscle cells being • The result is a smooth and sustained
stimulated at one time muscle contraction

Types of Graded Responses

• Twitch

• Single, brief
contraction

• Not a normal
muscle
function
MUSCLE RESPONSE TO STRONG STIMULI

• Muscle force depends upon the number of

• Summing of contractions fibers stimulated
• One contraction is immediately • More fibers contracting results in greater
followed by another muscle tension
• The muscle does not completely • Muscles can continue to contract unless they
return to a resting state due to more run out of energy
frequent stimulations
ENERGY FOR MUSCLE CONTRACTION
• The effects are added
• Initially, muscles use stored ATP for energy

• ATP bonds are broken to release

• Unfused energy
(incomplete)
tetanus • Only 4–6 seconds worth of ATP is
stored by muscles
 • After this initial time, other pathways must be • Involuntary—no conscious control
utilized to produce ATP
• Found mainly in the walls of hollow organs
• Direct phosphorylation of ADP by creatine
phosphate (CP)

• Muscle cells store CP

• CP is a high-energy molecule

• After ATP is depleted, ADP is left

• CP transfers a phosphate group to ADP, to

regenerate ATP

• CP supplies are exhausted in less than 15

seconds

• About 1 ATP is created per CP molecule

• Fusiform, non-striated cells

• Single, centrally-placed nucleus

• Contraction is non-voluntary

• Contraction is modulated in a neuroendocrine

manner

• Found in blood vessels, GI and urogenital

organ walls, dermis of skin

SMOOTH MUSCLE CHARACTERISTICS

• Lacks striations

• Spindle-shaped cells

• Single nucleus

Ultrastructure of Smooth Muscle:
• actin and myosin filaments
• intermediate filaments of desmin
vimentin in vascular smooth muscle)
• membrane associated and cytoplasmic dense
bodies containing  actinin (similar to Z lines)
• relatively active nucleus (smooth muscle cells
make collagen, elastin, and proteoglycans)
microtubules
• actin filament
• intermediate filaments
• dense bodies (desmin/vimentin plaques)
• caveoli (membrane invaginations & vesicular
system contiguous with SER –functionally
analogous to sarcoplasmic reticulum)
• diameter than in skeletal muscle
CARDIAC MUSCLE CHARACTERISTICS
• Striations
• Usually has a single nucleus
• Branching cells
• Joined to another muscle cell at
intercalated disc
• Involuntary
• Found only in the walls of the heart
Tissue Features:
• Striated (same contractile machinery)
• Self-excitatory and electrically coupled
• Rate of contractions modulated by autonomic
nervous system
(also
– innervation is neuroendocrine in
nature (i.e. no “motor end plates”)
Cell Features:
• 1 or 2 centrally placed nuclei
• Branched fibers with intercalated discs
• Numerous mitochondria (up to 40% of cell
volume)
• Sarcoplasmic reticulum & T-tubules appear as
diads at Z lines
– Sarcoplasmic reticulum does not form
terminal cisternae
– T tubules are about 2x larger in
• transport Ca2+ into fibers
an