L1.

Introduction to Muscle Physiology

MUSCLE TYPES

Different types of muscles in your body:

• smooth muscle

• cardiac muscle

• skeletal muscle

- all made of same ‘elastic’ material

- many fibres make up muscle

1.Smooth muscle

• involuntary - you can't control this muscle

• usually in sheets / layers
• located in:
• Stomach
• Intestine (peristalsis)
• Uterus
• Skin (ctrls body hair)
• Blood vessels
2. Cardiac muscle

• cardiac muscle involuntary (like smooth muscle)

• myocardium

• thick muscles (contract to pump blood out)

(relax to let blood back in)

• faintly striated with intercalated discs

• branched syncitium – functional unit

3. Skeletal muscles

• striated muscle | voluntary

• long fibres, many different sizes and shapes

• multinucleate

• each fibre stimulated by branch from motor neuron

• skeletal muscles work w bones - give body power & strength

Skeletal Muscle: structure
Ultrastructure: the basic functional unit – Sarcomere

striated muscle made of sarcomeres in highly regular arrangements

SARCOMERE
- two prominent Z-discs
- thick filament of myosin + two sets of thin filaments (actin mostly)

Functional physiology of skeletal muscles

• movement of actin upon myosin to produce contraction

• muscle contraction stimulated by motor neurons

• acetylcholine - neurotransmitter (NMJ)

 muscle activity accounts for most of body's energy consumption

 Requires a ready source of ATP

Skeletal Muscle – composition